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TEACHERS' MANUAL 



I 

h^ FOR THE S 

I Elementary Sckools of | 

i 






^ Prepared for tKe State Department of Education ^ 

^(j by W. K. Tate, State Supervisor of jq 

M Elementary Rural Sckools 



// -^5-3/3 







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j« Issueci by J. E. Swearingen, State Supt, of Education, 1915 /R 

m ========^=====^=========^^ I 

M This Official Manual Should be Carefully Preserved by Teachers and ffi 

m School Officers. The Edition Will be Limited ffi 



i _____ Pa 



TEACHERS' MANUAL 



FOR THE 



Elementary Schools of 
South Carolina 



Prepared for the State Department of Education 

BY 

W. K. TATE 

State Supervisor of Elementary Rural Schools 



SECOND EDITION 



Issued By 

J. E. SWEARINGEN 

State Superintendent of Education 

1915 



This Official Manual Should be Carefully Preserved by Teachers and 
School Officers. The Edition Will be Limited 



Columbia, S. C. 

THE STATE CO.. PRINTERS 

1915 



A- 73 / s% I 



TEACHERS' MANUAL FOR THE ELEMENTARY 
SCHOOLS OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

To Teachers and School Officers of the State: 

This Manual is offered to teachers and school officers in the 
hope that it may promote the progress and increase the efficiency 
of the free public schools. It is the property of the State and 
should be carefully preserved. 

The elementary schools form the basis of any educational sys- 
tem. In them the majority of the pupils are enrolled and the 
largest number of teachers are emploj^ed. If this Manual helps 
to induce a better understanding of school needs and school meth- 
ods the aim of the author and of the Department will be fully 
met. 

Yours respectfully, 

J. E. SWEAEINGEN, 
State Supt. of Education. 



0. Of D.- 
APR 22 t9f8 



, \ 



Columbia, S. C, September 18, 1911. 

Hon. J. E. Swearingen, State Superintendent of Education, 
Columbia, S. G. 

Dear Sir : I have the honor to transmit herewith the manual 
for the Elementary Schools, prepared in accordance with your 
request and the suggestion of the State Board of Education. In 
the preparation of this manual I have not strained after origin- 
ality, but have made free use of current educational thought 
and good material whenever it has come to my attention. I have 
found the State Manuals of Wisconsin and North Carolina 
especially suggestive. Especial acknowledgments are also due to 
Miss Leila A. Russell and Miss Sarah Withers of Winthrop Col- 
lege; to Superintendent S. H. Edmunds of Sumter; to Prof. 
Patterson Wardlaw and Prof. L. T. Baker of the University of 
South Carolina; to Dr. J. LaBruce Ward of the State De- 
partment of Health, and to Mr. B. A. Wharton of the State Insur- 
ance Department, for the special contribution under their names, 
and to these and Mrs. Hetty S. Browne and Dr. J. P. Kinard 
of Winthrop, for other valuable suggestions. I am especially 
indebted to Dr. Patterson Wardlaw of the University of South 
Carolina, who has read the manuscript and has freely given the 
benefit of his wisdom and experience, and to Dr. Reed Smith of 
the University of South Carolina, who has made a critical read- 
ing of the proof. 

Respectfully, • 

W. K. TATE, 
State Supervisor of Elementary Rural Schools. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Page 

A WORD TO CITY TEACHERS (by Supt. S. H. Edmunds) T 

A SPECIAL MESSAGE TO THE COUNTRY SCHOOL AND ITS FRIENpS. ... 9 

The Importance of the Country in the Life of the Nation 11 

The Country Exodus 11 

The Country the Ideal Location for the Elementary School 13 

Handicaps of the Rural School and How to Overcome Them 14 

TEACHING A COUNTRY SCHOOL 19 

Getting a Position 19 

Preliminary Work 20 

A School Room Ready for the Opening 21 

The Equipment of the School Room 22 

The School Work Room 23 

The School Grounds 24 

Water Supply 24 

Plan for the Opening Day 26 

COURSE OF STUDY FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 28 

Using the Course of Study in a Short Term School 32 

Record of Pupils' Work 33 

Promotion 33 

Reports to Parents 33 

County Graduating Exercise 34 

Irregular Attendance 34 

Making a Dally Program 35 

Expedients for Reducing Number of Daily Recitations 35 

Suggested Program of Recitations for One-Teacher School 37 

Suggested Program for Two-Teacher School 38 

READING 41 

What is Reading ? 43 

Training in Silent Reading 44 

Training in Oral Reading 45 

Enlarging the Child's Vocabulary 46 

Supplementary Reading 48 

Primary Reading 50 

Simple Material and Apparatus Needed by the Teacher of Primary Reading. 51 

Use of Material 51 

Beginning to Read 52 

Advantages of Method Suggested 61 

Learning to Write 62 

Drills to Secure Quickness and Accuracy in Recognition of Words 62 

Getting the Books 64 

Making the Transition from Script to Print 64 

Teaching the Recognition of New Words 64 

Learning the Names of Letters 69 

Assigned Work in the Course of Study 69 

Reading in the Higher Grades 69 

Habits Which a Teacher Should Aim to Develop in Her Pupils 69 

A Suggested Study of Bryant's "To a Waterfowl" 71 

LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR 71 

Resources of the Teacher in Language Training 72 

Selections for Memorizing 75 

Teaching the Writing of English 77 

The Use of the Text Books 78 



Page 

SPELLING 84 

Written Spelling 85 

Oral Spelling 85 

General Suggestions 85 

Devices for Arousing Interest in Spelling 87 

Suggestions for Using Thomas' Blanks for Written Spelling 87 

ARITHMETIC 88 

General Aims in Arithmetic Teaching 88 

Concrete Material and Its Use 90 

First Grade and Advanced First Grade 92 

The Text Books 94 

Follow Logical Order of Presentation 94 

Oral and Mental Arithmetic 98 

Practical Application of Arithmetic 99 

A Few Miscellaneous Suggestions 100 

HISTORY 101 

General Aims 101 

Suggestions for Primary Teachers 103 

Suggestions for Grades V and VI 105 

Suggestions for Grade VII 107 

Debates and Current Events 108 



CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP. .;..... 108 

General Aims 109 

Learning the Facts About Government 110 

The Text Book Ill 

Training in Organization for Public Service Ill 

NATURE AND COMMUNITY STUDIES 112 

Definition 112 

Method 112 

Special Equipment 114 

The Preparation of the Teacher 114 

Classified Suggestions 115 

The Soil 115 

Distance and Direction 117 

T'^e Weather 117 

Plant Study 118 

The School Garden 124 

The Home Garden 125 

Insects 126 

Birds 127 

Animals 129 

Local Industries 129 

AGRICULTURE ; 130 

Aim and Method 130 

GEOGRAPHY 131 

Objects of (reogranhy Teaching 131 

Nature Study and Geography 132 

Geotrrnphv and History 132 

Methods in Geography 132 

SCHOOL HYGIENE AND SANITATION 136 

Quotation from Wisconsin Manual 1.37 

Methods of Instruction in Hvgiene and S.Tnitation 140 

School Sanitation (by Dr. J. LaBruce Ward) 141 

WRITING 144 

DRAWING 146 

HOMEMAKING AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE 146 

SUGGESTIONS FOR PLANNING A LESSON (hj Dr. Patterson Wardlaw) 147 

HELPFUL BOOKS FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS 149 

PROTECTION FROM FIRE (by Deputy Insurance Commissioner B.A.Wharton) 152 

SUGGESTIONS IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 153 



TEACHERS' MANUAL 



A Word to City Teachers 
BY S. H. EDMUNDS 
' Superintendent of the Sumter Schools 

I have been asked to write a word to the teachers in the city 
schools. I cheerfully comply, for I am sure that in writing to 
them I shall at the same time be writing to the teachers of all 
schools. In addition to this, I am given an opportunity to say 
to the teachers of the city schools, town schools and country 
schools that a most careful study of this manual will be amply 
repaid by the benefit that one will thus receive. The author was 
for many years principal of a Normal School, and for several 
years assistant superintendent of a system of city schools. He 
is thus able to speak with authority to teachers in all elementary 
schools. 

It is very desirable that teachers should know what other 
teachers are doing. It is generally supposed that those who teach 
in city schools have an advantage on account of having a very 
much simpler schedule of studies. Assuming this to be true, it 
should be at once an inspiration and a spur for teachers in cities 
to realize how much is expected of those who teach in the coun- 
try. 

A greater effort is being made to harmonize the work in all the 
elementary schools. Many of the city schools will use the books 
recently adopted, and this will tend to unify the courses of study. 
In order that this unification may be more complete, it behooves 
the teachers to study the manual of the elementary schools as 
well as that of the high schools, so that each may know what the 
other is doing. 

In a graded school each grade is a link, and the tenacity of the 
whole chain depends upon the strength of each link. If every 
teacher would get this conception of her duty firmly fixed, her 
ambition would be kindled to see to it that there should be no 
weakness on account of her inefficiency. In a school there should 
always be the most perfect "team-work." This is certainly no 



place for jealousy. On the contrary, there should be at all times 
the most perfect loyaly — loyalty towards one's official head and 
towards one's coadjutors. There is nothing so unbecoming in a 
teacher, as littleness, and nothing so little as to be always on the 
lookout for some act that may be construed as a reflection upon 
one's dignity or ability. This produces disaffection, which grows 
into criticism, and the resultant is dissension. Avoid it as a 
mariner avoids some hidden rock. Cultivate a bigness of soul 
that will look upon school as an opportunity to develop the larger 
things of life. In no school can there be effective service without 
harmony, and no harmony unless one is willing to subordinate 
self in order that the school may progress and the pupils prosper. 
There is no finer field for professional fidelity than the school 
room: that virue — for it is a virtue — which makes one's attitude 
towards one's pupils that of a kindly helper, one's attitude 
towards one's €o-workers that of a friendly co-operation, one's 
attitude towards one's official head that of unyielding loyalty. It 
is this virtue that finds it fruition in those words that issued 
from sacred lips: "And as ye would that men should do to you, 
do ye even so to them." 

I have said that the whole system depends upon the strength 
of the individual grade. I will go further and say that the whole 
profession depends upon the ability of the individual member. 
Men judge a profession by the fitness of those who follow it. It 
is incumbent upon us, therefore, to examine ourselves, to exercise 
daily introspection — not that introspection which makes one 
melancholy, morbid and morose ; but that self-examination which 
determines whether or not in scholarship, ability to teach, ability 
to govern, and in character, we measure up to the standards 
which men have a right to set up for the adherents of so great a 
profession. 

All of us need that breadth of view and catholicity of spirit 
that come only from wider knowledge and deeper sympathy. A 
manual such as this is one means of securing such knowledge. 
We do ourselves an injustice if we slight it; if we study it we 
learn what others are doing, and thus have a greater desire to do 
more for ourselves, more for our school, and more for our profes- 
sion. 



A Special Message for the Country School and Its Friends 

The country has always been, and will always be, the basis 
of national prosperity and the source of national power. If the 
city with its wealth, its culture, and its complex social institu- 
tions is the flower of civilization, the country must always be 
the sturdy plant which bears it. The country is the source of 
the world's supply of food, clothing, shelter, and the raw mate- 
rials of industry. The fundamental wants of man are supplied 
by the country and anything which touches and influences, 
either favorably or unfavorably, the development of the farm 
affects fundamentally the whole social and economic structure. 

For two decades the trend of American thought and activity 
has been toward the development of the manufacturing and com- 
mercial industries. The best ability of the nation has been con- 
cerned with the building of railroad systems and manufacturing 
enterprises, and with the organization of those immense aggre- 
gations of capital which have made American enterprise and 
inventive genius the admiration of the world. This development 
has been accompanied by a great exodus from the country and a 
concentration of population in manufacturing centers. During 
the last five years we have just awakened to a realization of the 
fact that this movement has disturbed the balance between the 
country and the city. The increasing cost of farm products has 
turned the attention of the whole nation to the economic import- 
ance of the man on the farm. The insistent cry, "back to the 
farm," is a deliberate attempt to restore the balance which has 
been so seriously disturbed. 

The country has aliuays heen the source of physical vitality in 
the race. The human organism has been evolved through untold 
centuries of life in the sunshine and the open air and the daily 
struggle with the primitive forces of nature. The normal environ- 
ment for the child and the grown-up man is not the paved streets 
of the city and the confined air of the counting room, but rathef 
the freedom of the open fields and the wholesome physical activity 
of the country. The very muscles of our eyes have been adjusted 
by nature to distant vision, and the strain of convergence and 
accommodation comes only when we direct our gaze to the object 
which is close at hand. The very existence of the city itself 



10 

demands a constant recruiting of its population from the farm. 
The families of the country are usually larger than those of the 
city, and must continually take the place of those who have gone 
down under the stress of physical conditions to which the human 
organism has not yet adapted itself. 

The country is the great source of intellectual ability in the 
race. This is readily seen by the examination of a roster of men 
who have attained distinction in the business and professional 
life of the city. It has been estimated that three-fourths of the 
successful business men in our great cities have spent their early 
lives on the farm. The same thing is true in a more marked 
degree for the professional classes. The teachers, the ministers, 
the lawyers, and the statesmen of the United States have, in 
most cases, been brought up in the country. There are many 
reasons for this state of affairs. It is partially to be explained by 
the superior physical vitality of the country boy. Then, too, he 
has been accustomed from early childhood to definite tasks which 
he must perform with faithfulness and regularity. He has 
usually acquired the ability to do conscientiously even the dis- 
agreeable task. He has been reared in a simple environment, in 
the presence of ideas which he can understand. The experiences 
to which he has been accustomed are the great common experi- 
ences of humanity and furnish the fundamental ideas for the 
interpretation of all life and all literature. He has been accus- 
tomed to understand thoroughly the simple environment in which 
he has moved, and has thus acquired the habit of getting at the 
bottom of things. The city boy has grown up in a very complex 
environment. It has been impossible for him to understand 
thoroughly the complicated industrial, commercial, and social 
life in which he has moved. He must content himself with a 
superficial view of this life which, like the law of gravitation, 
has become so common as to lose the power to provoke inquiry or 
investigation. The country boy never forgets his first sight of 
the electric street car. The sparks of electricity popping from 
the wheels and the trolley provoke in him consuming wonder and 
a curiosity which is not satisfied until he has acquired a rather 
comprehensive idea of the operation of the street railway system. 
He wants to know what a dynamo is, how it is built, how elec- 
tricity is conducted to the motor, and what happens there. The 
ordinary city boy has become so accustomed to the electric car 
that he merely takes it for granted without inquiry. When the 



11 

country boy moves to town he sees opportunities to which this 
superficial acquaintance has blinded the eyes of his city cousin, 
and achieves a success which would not be possible to one who 
has had a city training. 

The cotmtry is the source of moral power in the nation. The 
country boy is removed from many of the corrupting vices which 
sap the vitality of the city. His life on the farm has inculcated 
habits of industry and attention to business, and these are 
important elements in morality. In his business relations he 
has been accustomed to deal directly with his fellowmen as 
individuals, and not merely with corporate bodies without senti- 
ment and soul. Honesty acquires a more vital meaning when it 
is involved in a transaction between man and man than when it 
merely involves a relation between one individual and a corpora- 
tion. The ideals of honor, honesty and responsibility are thus 
clearly defined in the country boy, and there is in him the tend- 
ency at least to carry these ideals over into the more complex life. 
Religion has maintained a stronger and more vital hold on the 
country than on the city. It plays a larger part in the life of the 
individual and of the community. 

It is highly important not only for the country itself, but for 
the city, that these resources be preserved for the nation. National 
decay has always begun with a degeneration of rural life. The 
United States can not aiford to follow in the footsteps of the 
nations which are no more. 

The Country Exodus. 

The statistics of the last census, however, furnish us with 
abundant material for uneasiness on this score. There is in all 
parts of the United States a steady exodus from the country to 
the city. The agricultural exports of the United States show a 
decrease which sooner or later will seriously disturb the balance 
of trade. The total increase in population is more than accounted 
for by the growth of the cities. In South Carolina in 1890 there 
were thirty-three towns and cities of 1,000 population and over. 
In 1900 there were forty-four such towns, while in 1910 tlie 
number has risen to sixty-nine. In 1905 the white enrollment in 
the rural schools of South Carolina was 100,553; in 1910 this had 
decreased to 100,103. In the meantime, the total white school 
enrollment of the State showed an increase of 16,000 pupils. Five 
years ago, 71 per cent, of the white children of the State were 



12 

enrolled in the rural schools, now only 64 per cent, are enrolled 
in these schools, which have thus lost 11,000 white children in the 
five-year period. 

The report of the Country Life Commission, appointed by 
President Roosevelt, gives an admirable account of the various 
causes which may contribute to this rural exodus. From an 
actual canvass of the people who have moved from the country 
to town in some sections of South Carolina, we are driven to the 
conclusion that the principal cause in this State is the search for 
better educational and social advantages for the children. The 
good crops and the favorable prices which have prevailed during 
the past few years have served only to accelerate the movement. 
As long as the South Carolina farmer was struggling with pov- 
erty and low prices he had little time to think of education. The 
movement at that period was from the unprofitable farm to tht 
cotton mill village. With the return of agricultural prosperity 
the ambitious farmer is removing his residence to the smaller 
towns of the State in order that his children may have satisfac- 
tory educational advantages, and is attempting to operate his 
farm by some tenant system. This frequently means deterioration 
of the farm itself, and certainly means that the children of the 
next generation brought up in a town environment will have 
neither the taste nor the ability to farm as efficiently as did their 
fathers. The man who goes to town for school advantages is 
usually a community leader. By his removal the country school 
loses his patronage and support and still further deteriorates. 
The country church, of which he was a member, feels his loss 
and becomes a less potent instrumentality for good. The social 
life of the community becomes less desirable and this has a tend- 
ency to accelerate the movement which has already begun. The 
country thus drained of its white citizens is occupied almost 
exclusively by negro tenants, and it then becomes almost impossi 
ble to secure a return of the white population to a social environ- 
ment which has become permanently undesirable. The presence 
and constant direction of the white race is necessary to anything 
like efficient farming in South Carolina. The development in 
any section of an undirected negro peasantry will invariably 
result in a diminishing productivity of the soil and a correspond- 
ing diminution in the general wealth and prosperity. 

That the desire for better schools is the chief cause of the farm 
exodus in South Carolina is further proved by the fact that com- 



13 

mimities which have succeeded in establishing satisfactory schools 
not only hold their own, but show a constant increase in popula- 
tion and improvement in country life. There are manj' such 
schools in the State. Their presence has brought about in places 
a ten-fold increase in land values because the community has 
become attractive as a place of residence. The good teacher and 
the good school are important business assets of the community. 

The Country the Ideal Location for the Elementary School. 

It is frequently easier to move one's children to a school which 
has already been established in the town or city than to secure the 
development of a satisfactory school in the rural community. 
It is a mistake, however, to assume that the town is a more desir- 
able location for a school. The country has its greatest advan- 
tages in the normal environment and natural activities which are 
there possible. The child is free from the unwholesome distrac- 
tions which characterize the life of the city streets. His atten- 
tion is more easily directed to his studies and he has more time 
to devote to them. The good rural school allows a flexibility of 
gradation for which the city superintendents of the United States 
are now striving in the organization of city school systems. 
Under the close gradation of the city and the "lock step" move- 
ment which it necessitates, the bright pupil is sometimes retarded 
in his progress, and does not have an opportunity to develop the 
individuality and the self-reliance which are always desirable 
The boy in the country school, however, where there are at least 
two or three grades of work in the same class-room, has a larger 
portion of the educational bill-of-fare placed before him at one 
time, and consequently has the opportunity of making his own 
ability, rather than the average ability of his class, the measure 
of his progress. Recent statistics which have been compiled, com- 
paring the efficiency of the city school and even the one-room 
rural school under a trained teacher, indicate that the pupils of 
the country school have the greater knowledge and the greater 
capacity for using it intelligently. The rural teacher should not 
be dazzled by the splendid buildings, the military organization, 
the lavish equipment, and the imposing statistics of the city 
school. These are merely accessories, and alone do not constitute 
education. She should appreciate her own opportunities, and 
should realize that the country school possesses elements of power 



14 

and efficiency which are coveted by every progressive city super- 
intendent in the United States. 

Handicaps of the Eural School. 

On the other hand, the rural school is subject to many handi- 
caps which the prospective teacher should realize and face with 
the determination to overcome them. 

The -first of these is the difficulty of securing an organized com- 
munity effort in the country. The isolation of the farmer and 
his dependence on the forces of nature and his own energy have 
developed in the average rural community an individualism 
which does not readily lend itself to the co-operation necessary to 
a good school. The farmer has been slow in recognizing the 
school as an institution of democracy. It is sometimes difficult 
to persuade him that all the people working together can bring 
greater good to each than any man can secure working for him- 
self alone. Good roads, consolidation of schools, public con- 
veyance of pupils and adequate school support are all easy of 
solution to the community which has learned the art of co-opera- 
tion. The lack of co-operative public interest is the greatest 
impediment to the rural school, and to overcome it requires a 
constant effort on the part of the teacher. The organization of 
the social forces of the community will depend largely upon her 
interest and tact. 

To this end the skilful teacher will take an active part in the 
general community life. Her services will be needed in the 
church and Sunday school, and she will be a potent factor in the 
social life of the school district. 

The lach of intelligent puhlic interest in education is sometimes 
hrought about hy our failure to adapt the school to the condi- 
tions and needs of the mral community. The farmer feels 
instinctively that the thing which the boy learns at school not 
only does not give him a more enduring interest in the farm and 
farm work, but actually makes him dissatisfied with the country 
and leads him to think that the things really worth while are to 
be found far away from home, and usually in the city. This idea 
was recently expressed by a farmer who was listening to an 
educational address in one of the lower counties of South Caro- 
lina. He remarked: "You can not educate everybody; some- 
body has got to do the work." A rural community is quick to 
respond to any successful effort on the part of the teacher to 



15 

vitalize the connection between the school and the efficiency of 
the farm. At the Jacksonville Conference for Education in the" 
South, Miss Jessie Field, of Page County, Iowa, told how a 
farmer who had had no interest in the school became its strongest 
supporter when his dairy business was made profitable through 
the use of the Babcock Milk Tester in his district school. This 
adaptation of education to the specific needs of life now chal- 
lenges the attention of every rural teacher. In it no rules have 
been evolved for her to follow. It offers the best opportunity for 
the exhibition of her originality and skill. 

In South Carolina at the present time there is nothing which is 
doing more to develop co-operative interest in education than the 
County Field Day and the County School Fair. Every county 
in which one of these celebrations has been held has immediately 
felt its stimulating effects. Through them the schools soon learn 
that they are parts of a system. Community enthusiasm is 
aroused by the success of the school team in the "events" which 
constitute the exercises of the day. They offer opportunity for 
the exhibition of school work, especially the products of the 
school garden, the Boys' Corn Club, and the handiwork of the 
rural school. It is hoped that before long there can be com- 
bined with the County Field Day an award of county diplomas 
to those who have completed the work of the elementary school. 

The third handicap of the rural school is found in ths inade- 
quacy of funds for the proper irhaintenance of the school. The 
average per capita expended for the education of the children of 
the United States in 1906 was $25.40. The average for the South- 
ern States was $8.90. 

The farmer uneducated in co-operation seems constitutionally 
opposed to taxation for community effort. The reactionary agi- 
tator having observed this weakness, has seized upon it as an 
easy avenue of access to the farmer's attention and his suffrage, 
and this reiterated appeal of the self-seeking politician has 
caused many otherwise sensible farmers to conclude that all taxa- 
tion is tyranny. The ordinary resident of the town and city in 
South Carolina, whose property is assessed at 50 per cent, of its 
market value, w^illingly submits to a 3, 4, or even 7-mill school 
tax. The farmer, whose land is assessed at one-tenth of its mar- 
\ ket value, is too easily persuaded that a 4-mill tax is burdensome. 
1 Frequently he does not realize how small his quota of the tax 
\will be, and still more frequently the man who virtually pays no 
v 



16 

taxes, and who has the most children to educate, by sheer weight 
of his ignorance and prejudice, is the most violent opponent of 
the special tax. 

If the property of South Carolina were returned at a fair 
valuation, the 3-mill tax alone would in most counties produce 
sufficient revenue to support the public school system. It is an 
especial cause of congratulation^ however, that the disposition 
of the school districts to levy special taxes is becoming more evi- 
dent each year. Already about half of them have used this 
device to supplement their school funds, and when the policy has 
once been adopted it is rarely abandoned. The mere suggestion 
of this special tax by the teacher and an explanation of the 
method of conducting the election will frequently be sufficient 
to secure the levy. The School Extension Act, under which the 
State treasury duplicates the amount raised by special taxation 
in an amount not exceeding $100, has proved a powerful stimulus 
in this direction. Every school district in the State in which the 
regular school funds are not sufficient to continue the school for 
as much as five months should take advantage of the School 
Extension Act. 

A fourth Jiandicap of the I'ural schools is the lack of adequate 
supervision. The County Superintendent of Education has too 
long been regarded as an official who merely keeps the books of 
the office, makes an annual report to the State Superintendent 
and approves the pay warrants. We have unwisely fixed the 
salary of the County Superintendent of Education at a figure 
which does not enable that officer in many counties to devote all 
his time to the arduous and important duties of supervision. No 
county need expect to obtain the undivided service of a trained 
and experienced superintendent of schools for the $700 which now 
constitutes the average annual salary of the office in South Caro- 
lina. If a city school employing twenty-five trained teachers, 
concentrated in two or three buildings within walking distance 
of each other, demands for efficiency the undivided attention of a 
trained superintendent at a salary of $2,000 per year, how much 
more is this officer needed in the rural schools of an entire county, 
scattered over a wide area and employing for the most part 
untrained teachers, who have little opportunity through inter- 
course with each other to learn the best methods of conducting 
a school. Upon the County Superintendent, more than on any 
other man, rests the responsibility for the efficiency of the school. 



17 

His office should at least be equal in dignity and remuneration 
with the larger city superintendencies of the State. It should be 
removed at least one more step from county politics, and the 
superintendent thus left free to develop a consistent program of 
educational progress for his county. 

The County Board of Education should be authorized to 
appoint such assistants and supervisors as are necessary to give 
the same attention to the country schools as is now wisely 
bestowed on the city systems. Every county in the State might 
profitably employ a supervisor of teacher training to visit and 
counsel the untrained teachers in their school rooms, to conduct 
township institutes, to organize local School Improvement Asso- 
ciations, and by other means to give instruction in proper 
methods of teaching and management. The work of Miss Leila 
A. Russell in York County is an illustration of what such an 
officer can accomplish. 

The -fifth handicap is found in the lack of trained teachers for 
country schools. The graduates of the colleges and normal schools 
naturally accept the easier and more lucrative positions which 
are offered to them in the town and city. While the number of 
college trained teachers in the country schools is increasing, the 
majority of country teachers have had few opportunities beyond 
those afforded by the district school or the rural high school. 
The State, through her scholarship system, has offered oppor- 
tunities and incentives to our young men and women who may 
possibly teach. We sometimes forget the devoted band of work- 
ers who are now busy in the country schoolhouses of South Caro- 
lina. The permanent summer quarter at Winthrop College and 
.the short courses in that institution to be offered to active teach- 
ers during the regular school term will be a partial remedy for 
tMs condition. 

/ There is a tendency on the part of all of the colleges of the 
^5tate whose diplomas are recognized for State certificates to 
Ci()ffer courses in pedagogy to such of its students as have decided 
/to teach. In many counties the County Teachers' Association, 
under the direction of the County Superintendent, has developed 
great efficiency, and attendance upon its meetings has been made 
compulsory by a resolution of the teachers themselves and by the 
County Trustees' Association. This plan, adopted in Eichland, 

Calhoun and other counties, should become general. 
1 



18 

With better supervision and stricter requirements for certifica- 
tion and a State Board of Examiners to pass upon all papers 
submitted for teachers' certificates, the teaching profession in 
South Carolina will acquire new power and added dignity. It 
is easier for a poor teacher to succeed in a city school than in a 
country school. It is no uncommon thing for the successful 
country teacher to be called to the city at a larger salary. At 
some future day it may come to pass that the teacher who has 
shown her ability under the easier conditions of the town school 
will be promoted to the more important and the more remunera- 
tive country school. 

At present the tenure of position in the country schools of' 
South Carolina is too brief to secure anything like eflcient work. 
During the session of 1910-1911 in South Carolina, 63 per cent, 
of the teachers in the rural schools were teaching for their first 
term in the position which they held ; 23 per cent, were teaching 
the second term; 8 per cent, the third term, and only 6 per cent, 
had remained for more than three terms. There are then on the 
average about 80 per cent, of annual changes in country school 
positions. Not until this is reduced to about 30 per cent, can we 
lay claim to anything like satisfactory conditions in our country 
schools. No teacher can do her best work the first year. It 
requires time for her to become acquainted with her pupils and 
to become an integral part of the social life of the community. 
She owes it to herself to remain long enough in one position to 
accomplish something definite. The School Board should 
endeavor to retain their teachers for more than one year, and, 
as one means to this end, a salary schedule should be adopted 
under which the remuneration of the teacher would increase with 
her experience and efficiency. ) 

i 
\ 
I 
I 



19 

Teaching a Country School 
Getting a Position. 

The first task of the prospective teacher is to secure a position. 
If she has been exceptionally trained for her work, her services 
may be sought even for the first year. In most cases, however, 
she will be compelled to hunt for her first position. If she be 
reasonably happy and successful in this position, it is best to let 
the second position seek her. In the town and city schools of the 
State it is the custom for the Superintendent to nominate the 
teachers. The best County Superintendents of Education in the 
State have an increasing opportunity and responsibility in the 
selection of the teachers of the county. It is easier for them to 
learn the qualifications of prospective teachers than for the dis- 
trict trustees, who have nothing to do with the teachers outside 
their own district, and have little knowledge of the special needs 
of the school or the qualifications of the teachers. It is best, 
therefore, for the young teacher seeking a position to present her 
case first to the County Superintendent of the county in which 
she prefers to work. 

The teacher may secure heK position through a personal visit 
to the district and a personal soliciting of the trustees. She may 
secure her school through the recommendation of "friends, or 
through the information obtained from the Teachers' Agency. 
Before accepting a position the teacher should know the condi- 
tions well enough to be sure that she is willing to give the dis- 
trict her best services for at least a year. A definite written con- 
tract with the trustees, stating when the school is to open, the 
length of the term and the monthly salary is an effective safe- 
guard against misunderstandings and is always desirable. A 
teacher's certificate is necessary to a binding contract. If the 
teacher is a graduate of a recognized college, she should present 
her diploma to the County Superintendent or to the State Super- 
intendent, and should receive her certificate thereon. No contract 
can be legally entered into till this has been done. In all cases, 
the certificate should be registered with the County Superin- 
tendent. Before final acceptance of a position is given, the 
teacher should make sure that she can secure satisfactory board- 
ing accommodations in the district. 



20 

The teacher's success depends largely on her ability to' adapt 
herself to the social customs and ideals of the community in 
which she works. Dancing, card-playing and frivolity are abso- 
lute barriers to success in most country communities in South 
Carolina. The teacher who begins her career in a country dis- 
trict with the desecration of the Sabbath day, or with a social 
indiscretion, has already failed. Before accepting a position she 
should be sure of her willingness to surrender personal indul- 
gence to the public conscience of the community; otherwise she 
should decline the place. 

Preliminary Work. 

The teacher should go to the district several days before the 
opening of school. She should make herself comfortable in her 
new home, should become acquainted with some of her patrons, 
and should secure exact information as to the conditions which 
will surround her work. Failure on the part of pupils to enter 
promptly at the opening of the school is one of the serious obsta- 
cles to success in the country school of South Carolina. The 
teacher should confer with her trustees, secure the names of all 
the patrons, and by postal card or personal visit, should let each 
patron know when the school will open, and should encourage a 
full attendance on the first day. When she attends church and 
Sunday school on the day previous to the opening she should 
enlist the assistance of these agencies in securing a prompt enicll- 
ment. We are accustomed in South Carolina to make the closing 
of the school a great occasion in the district. It is much more 
important that the opening day should be made memorable by 
appropriate exercises. 

The teacher should, of course, see that the schoolhouse itself is 
in order and ready for the opening day. She will enlist the 
co-operation of the district trustees, the School Improvement 
Association, and the children in an effort to have the building 
in good repair and thoroughly clean. The weeds which have 
grown up in the yard during the summer should be cut clown, 
and the grounds made as attractive as possible. Too often in 
South Carolina the children congregate on the first day at a 
building which has received no attention since the closing day of 
school. The floor is dirty, the desks have not been arranged, the 
window panes are out, the yard has grown up in weeds, and no 
effort has been made to supply the absolutely necessary facilities 



21 

for the opening day. Sometimes the teacher does not leave her 
home in another part of the county until Monday morning, and 
arrives several hours after the time for the opening of the ses- 
sion. The disorder which then characterizes the opening day is 
usually prophetic of the term which is to follow. 

A School Room Ready for the Opening. 

The schoolhouse itself will usually be built without consulting 
the teacher. However, it is well for her to have a very definite 
idea of what the standard classroom is and endeavor to make 
the room in Avhich she teaches conform as nearly as possible to 
this standard. The classroom for thirtj'-five pupils should be 
twenty-five feet wide and thirty feet long, and the ceiling should 
be twelve feet high. The principal lighting should come from 
the left side of the pupil. The windows on this side should be 
close together to avoid cross shadows. It is also desirable that 
there should be some windows at the rear of the classroom to 
insure a better ventilation. There should be no windows . in 
front of the pupil and none on his right side if these can be 
avoided. The front of the room and the right side should be 
devoted entirely to blackboards, which should be four feet wide 
and should be placed twenty-seven inches from the floor. The 
blackboard should be provided with a chalk rail for holding the 
necessary crayon and erasers. The windows should be hung on 
pulleys so that they may be lowered from the top or raised from 
the bottom for ventilation. If it is possible to do so, the stove 
should be placed somewhat in one corner of the room so as to 
avoid breaking up the seating arrangements. A sheet iron screen 
or jacket surrounding the stove, projeqting six inches above the 
top, and supported by legs so as to come within three inches of 
the floor, will cause a circulation of the air in the room and will 
maintain a uniform temperature throughout the room even when 
placed near one corner. If possible, the room should be pro- 
vided with a ventilating jacketed stove, such as is described in the 
rural school building bulletin issued by Clemson College. A copy 
of this bulletin may be had upon request. 

The desks should be fastened to the floor, or to three-inch 
strips, so that the proper distance may be maintained between 
them. In many cases in South Carolina School Boards have used 
poor judgment in purchasing desks. Many buildings are pro- 
vided only with the larger sizes. School desks run from No. 6, 



22 

the smallest, to No. 1, the largest size. The ordinary country 
school should be provided with 5's, 4's, 3's and 2's. The small 
desks should be placed on one side of the room and the larger 
ones on the other side. It is sometimes customary to place the 
small desks in front and the larger ones behind. This compels a 
pupil to sit on a high seat with a low desk in front of him, and 
should be avoided. The size of the desk will be indicated on the 
iron standard. The spacing distance from back to back for No. 
5's is 22 inches; for No. 4's, 24 inches; for No. 3's, 26 inches, and 
for No. 2's, 28 inches. Any attempt to place desks of varying 
sizes in line across the room will necessitate an improper posture 
by the occupants of some of them. The aisles should be about 
two feet wide and a broad aisle should be left all around the 
school room. The beauty and attractiveness ©f the school room 
will depend largely on the painting and tinting of the walls. In 
general, green is the best color for the walls of the school room. 
For rooms in which the lighting is imperfect, a cream is desira- 
ble. Blues, reds and yellows should be avoided. The ceiling 
should be of a very much lighter tint than the walls, because it 
is desirable that this should reflect the light down upon the 
books of the pupils. 

Every classroom should be provided with a cloak room adjacent 
to it and sufficiently large to accommodate the hats and cloaks of 
the occupants. This room should have outside ventilation by a 
window. It is very unsanitary to pile hats and caps promiscu- 
ously in the corner of the classroom. To hang them on the walls 
of the room itself is unsightly and uses space which should be 
devoted to blackboards. 

If the classroom in which you are to teach does not conform 
to these standards, your arrangement should endeavor to over- 
come the worst of its deficiencies, and throughout the year you 
should have constantly in mind its improvement. 

The Equipment of the School Room. 

Under the provisions of the South Carolina Library Law, it 
is easy for a school to obtain a library. If a teacher is unac- 
quainted with the provisions of this Act, full information can 
be obtained from the State Superintendent of Education. The 
school library should constitute the first element in the equip- 
ment. It should be provided with books adapted to the varying 
ages and interests of the pupils, and they should be taught to 



make free use of it, both during the school hours and at home. 
In addition to the single books for reading by the individual 
pupils, and for home circulation, every library should be provided 
with one or more sets of supplementary readers, which should be 
used by the teacher to add variety and interest to the reading les- 
son. 

The standard school room should contain a set of good maps, 
including political maps of the world, the United States, North 
America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and a physical 
map of North America. It is the most economical in the end to 
buy these maps in the steel case mountings. The classroom should 
also contain a good twelve-inch globe, a good dictionary, a call 
bell, a box of good crayon, a dozen wool felt erasers, two or three 
blackboard pointers, a clock, a waste basket, and a set of the ordi- 
ary measures of length and capacity. 

One of the most common sights in the country schools of South 
Carolina is a pile of wood, and the dust and the dirt which 
usually accompany it, around the stove in the middle of the room. 
With such conditions as these it is impossible to keep the school 
room neat and attractive. It is easy to provide the school with a 
wood box, and this should be one of the first conveniences to be 
provided by the teacher and pupils. 

If these accessories are not in your school room when school 
opens, it should be your ambition to see that they are there when 
it closes. 

The School Work Room. 

A few years ago Superintendent Stetson, of Maine, advanced 
the idea that every school room, even for one teacher, should 
have in connection with it a work room in which practical 
manual training could be introduced. This work room should be 
equipped with a saw, hammers, square, planes, chisel, mitre box, 
a drawing knife, nails, paint brush, putty knife and the ordinary 
tools of the farm home. For the girls it should be equipped with 
a cook stove and simple cooking utensils. It should be so placed 
that the teacher while conducting her recitations in the main 
classroom could give it a measure of supervision. 

At the Sumter County Field Day last April there were 
exhibited excellent specimens of axe handles, hoe handles, plow- 
stocks, brooms and other useful articles which had been made by 
the school children of Sumter County. 



24 

The school work room would give opportunity for the develop- 
ment of manual skill along these and other practical lines. It 
would enable the teacher to make minor repairs to the school- 
house, such as putting in window panes, repairing steps, making 
shelves, providing apparatus for the playground, and even for 
painting the building. Such a room would teach the use of the 
common tools of the farm. Best of all, it would relieve the long 
intervals between recitations which characterize the one-room 
school in the country. The discipline of the country school, which 
is usually such a source of vexation, would be improved and 
pupils would find in the manual work a new source of interest. 

The School Grounds. 

The school grounds should also receive your earnest attention 
and consideration. It is not to the credit of the rural schools of 
South Carolina that so many of them are unprovided with any 
kind of privy. This negligence is not conducive to morality, 
decency or good health. The end of your first school term in a 
community should see this defect remedied. Complete plans and 
specifications for the sanitary privy may be obtained by address- 
ing a communication to the State Board of Health in Columbia. 

The playground is an essential part of the school equipment. 
Some of the most enduring lessons of youth are learned on the 
playground, and the teacher who provides for healthy, whole- 
some play and gives to this the proper supervision, Avill escape 
many vexations and be rewarded with a higher type of work by 
her pupils. 

The school house is frequently situated on a barren spot, and 
the surroundings are devoid of aesthetic appeal. The teacher 
should celebrate her first Arbor Day in the school community 
by planting some trees in proper places on the school yard. A 
hedge, some shrubbery and a few flower beds will add an attract- 
iveness which will be its own reward to teacher and pupil. 

Water Supply. 

One of the most important subjects to be considered by the 
teacher at the opening of the session is the school water supply. 
In the lower sections of the State it is usually possible, at a small 
cost, to obtain a flowing artesian well. This source of water 
supply should be utilized wherever it is possible. If the source of 



25 



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loitr 


iim 


mI 


1 M^^ iiiiiiiiH 




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ll^^m!9-rwvfmmw^^^>m 


•■■ ' • >: .v% 


HH 


%..: -. ■ -- • 




bJH 




J D D D n D 



ojSi D n n D D □ 
(5) D n D □ □ □ 



Picture and Plan of Oak Kiclge School. York County. After De- 
sign 7, Clemson ]-)ulletin. This is a Model House for a One- 
Teacher School. 



26 

supply is an open well, care should be taken that it is in good 
condition for the opening of the school term. It is usually neg- 
lected during the vacation, and there are strong chances of pollu- 
tion. The use of the open well with buckets should be discon- 
tinued wherever possible, and a pump installed. When the water 
is brought into the school room it should be served to the pupils 
in a sanitary manner. The receptacle in which it is placed should 
be covered and provided with a spigot from which water may be 
drawn. A stone jar provided with a self-closing spigot may be 
obtained at a small cost. The ordinary drinking cup is also a 
common means of communicating contagious diseases. Indi- 
vidual drinking cups should be substituted. 

Plan iok the Opening Day. 

While the teacher is making the building and grounds neat and 
attractive, and providing for the physical welfare of her pupils, 
she will not forget to make definite plans for the opening day. 
This is by far the most important day of the session. "Well 
begim is half done." The confidence with which the teacher 
attacks her problems on the opening day of the session will go far 
towards insuring ultimate control of the whole situation. She 
should enter school on the first morning with a very definite 
method of procedure in mind. If she be inexperienced, it will 
be well for her to make a note of what she expects to accomplish 
on the opening day, and to plan carefully the order of exercises. 
This will give her confidence and prevent a waste of time and 
energy. She should secure from the trustees the teacher's regis- 
ter for the previous session and familiarize herself with the 
names of the pupils, the grade of each, and the character of work 
done by each during the previous school year. She should pre- 
pare a tentative daily program for the session. It will perhaps 
be necessary to make modifications of this program, but these 
changes may easily be made by the teacher who has given the 
subject sufficient thought to make the tentative schedule of recita- 
tions. 

The teacher should be in her place early on the opening day 
to meet the pupils as they come, and to renew the personal 
acquanitances which she has made during the days of preliminary 
work in the district. The opening exercises for the first morning 
should be very simple, and the business of organization should 
proceed promptly. If a representative of the school Board is 



27 

present, he should address the school briefly and introduce the 
new teacher. Definite work of some kind should be assigned at 
the earliest possible moment. She should have on hand a few 
tablets and extra pencils for an emergency. It is best to make 
the previous year's work the basis for the classification. In the 
country school the reader used by the pupil will usually be an 
index to the grade. The teacher will call to the recitation bench 
all pupils who read the first reader during the previous school 
year, and will have them read selected passages from the book. 
In this way she can judge of the ability of the pupils, and will be 
enabled to determine which to continue in the first reader and 
which are ready for the second reader. After the teacher has 
tested the various classes in reading, she should find what other 
subjects they studied during the previous year, and should ascer- 
tain the ground covered in each. At the end of the day it will 
usually be possible for her to determine what grades she will 
have represented, and she may then make the necessary modifi- 
cations in her daily program. She should, however, be sure of her 
ground, and should not give instructions to pupils to purchase 
books until she is sure that they are ready for them. A review 
of two or three weeks in the books of the previous session will 
usually be very beneficial, even to the more proficient pupils. 



28 



Course of Study for Elementary Schools 

All books named in the course of study may he secured from 
any text-book depository in the county or from the Central Text- 
Book Depository in Columbia. 

Any and all casli orders should be filled by the publisher or by 
The K. L. Brj^an Company within three days after receipt. In 
no case is the purchaser liable for mail or express charges. 

For exchange price of books see paster on inside of front cover 
of texts. 

First Grade. 

Wheeler's Graded Primer (25c). 

Writing at blackboard and at seat with pencil and unruled 
paper. 

(Do not use copy books this year.) 

Counting and oral number work. Writing numbers to 100. 

Stories by teacher and pupils as basis for language work. 

Memorizing short, easy poems. 

Oral nature lessons adapted to season and locality. 

Singing. " 

Advanced First Grade. 

(In long term schools teachers may find it possible to complete 
all the work of the first and advanced first grades in one year.) 

Wheeler's Graded First Reader, basal (25c). 

Stepping Stones to Literature, First Eeader, supplementary 
(20c). 

Supplementary readings from school library. 

Stories and language training. 

Memorizing short, easy poems. 

Spelling from Reader. 

Oral and written number work based on first twenty pages of 
Milne's Progressive Course, First book. (The book should not 
be placed in the hands of the pupils in this grade.) 

Writing at seat and blackboard. 

(Do not use copy books this year.) 

Oral nature lessons adapted to season and suggested by environ- 
ment. 

Singing. 



29 

Second Grade. 

Wheeler's Second Reader, basal (35c). 

Stepping Stones to Literature. Second Reader, supplementary 
(25c). 

Supplementary reading from school library. (Myths, Tales, 
Fairy Stories and Nature Stories.) 

Spelling from Reader and from Progressive Course in Spelling. 
Book I (13c). 

Language work based on reading and stories. 

Memorizing easy poems. 

Oral and written number work, Milne's Progressive Arith- 
metic, First Book, Part I (32c). 

Berry's Writing Book No. I (5c). 

Augsburg's Drawing Book, First Year (15c). 

(Applied Arts Drawing Book No. 21, supplementary. 10c). 

Oral nature lessons adapted to season and suggested by environ- 
ment. 

Singing. 

Third Grade. 

Heart of Oak Books, Third Reader, basal (32c). 

Stepping Stones to Literature, Third Reader, Supplementary 
(30c). 

Supplementary readings from school library. (Bible, Hero 
and Nature Stories.) 

Language training for ease and correctness in speech. 

Memorizing short selections in prose and poetry. 

Progressive Course in Spelling, Book I (13c), Section 1 com- 
pleted. 

Milne's Progressive Arithmetic, Book I, Part II, completed. 

Berry's Writing Book No, II (5c). 

Aiigburg's Drawing Book, second year (15c), 

(Applied Arts Drawing Book No. 22, supplementary, 10c). 

Oral lessons in practical Hygiene. 

Nature Study and Community Life, with special reference to 
local industries. 

Singing. 

Fourth Grade. 

Heart of Oak Books, Fourth Reader, basal (35"c). 
Hill's Fourth Reader, supplementary (35c), 
Biographical readings from school library. 



30 

Oral and written Spelling, Progressive Course in Spelling, 
Book I completed. 

Withers-Kinard — The English Language, Book I (32c), to 
page 130. 

Maury's New Elements Geography (4oc), to page 49. 

Arithmetic, Milne's Progressive, First Book completed. 
(Emphasize mental work, and quickness and accuracy in funda- 
mental operations.) 

Ritchie-Caldwell's Primer of Hygiene (35c). 

Berry's Writing Book, No. Ill (5c). 

Augsburg's Drawing Book, Third Year (15c). 

(Applied Arts Drawing Book No. 23, supplementary, lie). 

Observation lessons in community life and activities, and les- 
sons introductory to Agriculture. 

Singing. 

Fifth Grade. 

Heart of Oak Books, Fifth Reader, basal (35c). 

Hill's Fifth Reader, supplementary (40c). 

Supplementary classics from school library. 

Written and oral Spelling, Progressive Course in Spelling, 
Book II (13c)^, Section 1. 

Withers-Kinard — The English Language, Book I completed. 

Milne's Progressive Arithmetic, Second Book (36c), to page 
146. (Emphasize mental work.) 

Maury's New Elements Georgraphy completed. 

White's Beginners' History of the United States (40c). 

Berry's Writing Book No. IV (5c). 

Augsburg's Drawing Book, Fourth Year (15c). 

(Applied Arts Drawing Book No. 24, supplementary, lie). 

School Lessons in Plant Production, based on Bulletin No. 
408, United States Department of Agriculture (free). 

Singing. 

Sixth Grade. 

Selections from Riverside Literature Series for Sixth Grade 
(38c). 

Kinard-Withers — The English Language, Book II (44c), to 
page 86, with frequent exercises in Composition. 

Progressive Course in Spelling, Book II, Section 2. (Writ- 
ten and oral.) 



31 

Milne's Progressive Arithmetic, Second Book, to page 233. 

Maury's New Complete Geography (88c), to page 98. (In 
connection with Southern States study South Carolina supple- 
ment found in Appendix.) 

White's The Making of South Carolina (60c). 

Ritchie — Primer of Sanitation (40c). 

Berry's Writing Book No. V (5c). 

Augsburg's Drawing Book, Fifth Year (15c). 

(Applied Arts Drawing Book No. 25, supplementary, lie). 

Oral lessons in Agriculture, with practical exercises in School 
Gardening and Manual Training. 

Singing. 

Seventh Grade. 

Selections from Riverside Literature Series, Seventh Grade 
(38c). 

Withers-Kinard — The English Language, Book II completed, 
with weekly exercises in Composition. 

Written and oral Spelling, Progressive Course, Book II com- 
pleted. 

Milne's Progressive Arithmetic, Second Book completed, 
including special supplement containing practical problems in 
Farm Arithmetic. Note — Teachers whose classes complete this 
book thoroughly before the end of the year may introduce Book 
III (41c) in the Seventh Grade. 

Maury's New Complete Geography. 

Thompson's History of the United States (70c). 

Wallace's Civil Government of South Carolina (60c). 

Duggar's Agriculture for Southern Schools (60c). 

Brooks' Story of Cotton, supplementary (60c). 

Elementary Cooking for girls (optional). 

Berry's Writing Book No. VI (5c). 

Augsburg's Drawing Book, Sixth Year (15c), 

(Applied Arts Drawing Book No. 26, supplementary, lie). 

Singing. 

NOTES. 

For Optional Supplementary Reading Above Fourth Grade : 

Snyder's Selections from the Old Testament (30c). 

Hall's Half Hours in Southern History (75c) . 

Simms' The Yemasee (68c). 

Mims & Payne's Southern Prose and Poetry (65c). 



32 

For optional use in written spelling: 
Thomas' Spelling Blanks (5c). 

Adopted Dictionaries : 
Webster's Primary (44c). 
Webster's Common School (65c). 
Webster's High School (90c). 
Webster's Academic ($1.35). 

Exchange period on old hooks used from 1906 to 1911 expires 
December 16, 1912. 

Using the Course of Study in a Short Term School. 

It will be noted that in dividing the course of study we have 
used the term grade instead of year. The length of the school 
term is such a variable quantity in South Carolina that it would 
be impossible to base a course of study on the year as a unit. The 
course, as outlined in each grade, will usually be found abundant 
work for a nine months' school with a capable teacher. If your 
school runs for six months, the pupils in the third grade should 
be able to complete about two-thirds of the work outlined. AVhen 
they return to school next year they should not buy new books 
and take up the work of the fourth grade, but should continue 
the work outlined in the third until they have finished it. When 
this has been done, they should then purchase the new books and 
begin the work of the fourth grade. With a bright class, a 
trained teacher will sometimes find it possible to complete the 
work of the grade in six or seven months. The completion of 
the work, however, and not the beginning of a new school term, 
should be the signal for promotion and new books. 

In the rural schools of South Carolina I have found an unfor- 
tunate tendency to cover ground too rapidly. I find pupils read- 
ing in the Second Reader when they should be in the First. I 
have found them working in percentage when they do not know 
the multiplication table. I have found them struggling with 
Latin when the English Grammar is a sealed book of mysteries 
to them. The teacher who pushes her pupils into books too diffi- 
cult for them is doing them an incalculable injury. They never 
feel the confidence and inspiration which come from mastery. 
Especially in the beginning of a new subject a teacher should 
move slowly. Every topic mastered adds its quota of strength 
and encouragement. The pupil who has done a few things well 



forms a habit of study Avhich will enable him to master other 
work with greater ease and rapidity. 

At the close of the school year the teacher should leave in tlie 
register a written statement showing the grade of each pupil and 
the ground covered by him in each subject during the year. 

The teacher in the country will sometimes meet with requests 
that pupils be excused from certain subjects offered in the grade. 
Occasionally we find a parent who asks that his son be allowed 
to study Arithmetic and Spelling onh^ This tendency should 
be discouraged in every way possible. No pupil knows his own 
capacities and tastes until he has given a subject a fair trial. 
Convince him that to take only a partial course unfits him to 
continue the work of the elementary school, to enter the high 
school, or to enter college. In a few years he will awaken to a 
realization of his mistake and will have nothing but condemna- 
tion for the laxity of a system which allowed him to study what 
his own untrained inclination prompted. 

Record or Pupils' Work. 

In the new school register, which has been prepared for the 
schools of South Carolina, there are blank spaces after the name 
of each pupil in which his study record for the month in the 
various subjects should be entered. This estimate may perhaps 
best be indicated in per cents., 100 denoting perfect, 90 excellent, 
80 good, 70 fair, 60 poor, 50 unsatisfactory. In arriving at this 
estimate the teacher should take into account the work of the 
pupil in daily recitation and his knowledge as indicated by a writ- 
ten arid oral review and test conducted at the close of the month. 

Promotion. 

To secure promotion when the class has finished the work of 
the grade, a pupil should secure an average of at least 65 per 
cent., and should not fall below 50 per cent, in any subject. 

Reports to Parents. 

It will add greatly to the parent's interest in the progress of 
his children if a report of their work is sent to him at the end 
of each school month. This report should be a copy of the grades 
entered in the register, and, in addition, should show how many 
times the pupil has been absent and how manj^ times he has been 

3— T. M. 



34 

tardy. It is hoped that the County Superintendents of South 
Carolina will consider the printing and distribution of a uniform 
monthly report in the schools of their counties. These incentives 
are used constantly with excellent results by teachers in the city 
schools, and there is no reason why the parent in the country 
should not be informed as to the progress of his children. 

County Graduating Exercises. 

It is to be hoped that the County Superintendent, County 
Trustees, and the teachers in the various counties of South Caro- 
lina will arrange for awarding county certificates to all pupils of 
the county who complete satisfactorily the elementary school 
course. The awarding of these certificates might well constitute 
one feature of the County Field Day. The certificate should be 
based on the completion of the work and on the passing of cer- 
tain examinations prepared by the County vSuperintendent of 
Education for the schools of his county. The certificates should 
secure admission to any county high school. The fact that such 
a certificate is offered would be an incentive to more regular 
attendance, to greater efforts in study, and would encourage the 
more advanced pupils to remain longer in school. 

Irregular Attendance. 

One of the most serious drawbacks to efficient work and ]^rog- 
ress in the country schools is the irregularity in attendance. Last 
year the average daily attendance in the schools of the State was 
considerably less than 75 per cent. Irregularity in attendance 
not only makes good work impossible to the irregular student, 
but is almost as great a drawback to the student who attends 
regularly. His progress is continually impeded by the necessity 
of retracing his steps for the benefit of those who have been 
absent. To remedy this evil should challenge the most earnest 
efforts of the teacher. She should visit the home of the delin- 
quent pupil and should show the parent the fatal consequences 
of irregularity. Every teacher should have a part in the educa- 
tion of public sentiment towards an attendance law which will 
give the advantage of a common school education to every child 
in South Carolina. It would be well for every County Superin- 
tendent in the State to award a special certificate at the end of 



35 

the year to the students who have not missed a day during the 
(Session. 

Making a Daily Program. . 

If a teacher has only one or two grades, it will be comparatively 
easy to make a daily program, which will provide for each sub- 
ject indicated in the course of study. It is perfectly evident, 
however, to one Avho scans the preceding course, that for one 
teacher in a country school with seven grades, it will be an abso- 
lute impossibility to provide for separate classes in all subjects 
for every grade. This would necessitate at least forty recitations 
per day. Such a program would merely dissipate the time and 
energy of the teacher. Some way must be found to reduce the 
number of recitations to not more than twenty-five. 

Expedients for Reducing Number or Daily Recitations. 

1. Simultaneous work by grades. — All the writing and drawing 
lessons may be conducted at the same time. The pupils of several 
grades may be combined in the story and language work. All 
grades above the second should usually work in Arithmetic at 
the same time. After giving necessary explanations to one grade 
of pupils, seat work or board work may be assigned to its mem- 
bers, w^hile the teacher passes on to explanations and assignment 
of work- in other grades of the school. After having assigned 
work the teacher throws the student on his own responsibility 
and merely gives him assistance when it is needed. In this way 
a 40-minute period Avill suffice for all the upper grades in Arith- 
metic. 

2. Alternation of years. — In the earlier years of the course the 
work must be taken in order, but in many subjects it makes no 
particular difference whether a pupil takes the fifth grade one 
year and the sixth grade next, or whether he takes the sixth 
grade work after he finished the fourth, and fifth on the year 
following. Both fifth and sixth grades may do the sixth grade 
work in 1911, and fifth grade work in 1912. In 1911, both may 
take "The Making of South Carolina," and on the following year 
may take "The Primary History of the United States." One 
recitation per day is thus saved. The sixth and seventh grades 
both read selected English classics. Certain selections may be 
used by both grades in one class in 1911, and the others by the two 
grades in 1912. In the same way the higher grades may be 



36 

classified together in spelling. In advanced Geography some 
educators claim that the United States should be studied first and 
the rest of the world afterwards; others contend that the year 
of greatest maturity should be given to the intensive study of our 
own country. The country teacher can follow one plan in 1911 
and the other in 1912, thus combining both sixth and seventh 
grades in the same class and saving one recitation per day. 

Even in Arithmetic some alternation is possible. After a pupil 
has finished common and decimal fractions, it makes little differ- 
ence whether he takes up denominate numbers or percentage next. 
It is possible to give one subject first this year and the other next, 
and combine the two grades. There are, however, subjects like 
English Grammar where the logical connection should not be 
broken. 

3. Pupil Assistants. — In country schools frequently there are 
larger pupils who are willing and who may be trained to assist 
with the lower classes, and much desk work for primary grades 
may be turned over for a time to such student assistants. The 
author of this manual first became interested in teaching as a 
pupil assistant. 

4. Omissions from the Course. — The teacher must arrange her 
program so as not to slight the essentials. If the devices already 
mentioned do not reduce the number of recitations to the maxi- 
mum for good work, she will be compelled to omit entirely the 
least essential of the subjects. Reading, Writing, Spelling, and 
Arithmetic should not be allowed to suffer, neither should the 
general period devoted to nature study, community life, and the 
awakening of the mind of the pupil to the significant elements in 
his surroundings. No one-teacher country school can ajford to 
attempt high school subjects. To do so is unfair to the elementary 
pupils. 

The suggested division of time and the teacher's programs 
which are appended hereto are not intended to be compulsory, 
but are subject to modification to suit the conditions of the indi- 
vidual schools. 



37 



Suggested Program of Recitations for One-Teacher School. 



Hour. 


Time. 


Grade. 


Subject. 


8:45- 


9:00 


15 


min. 


All 


Opening. 


9:00- 


9:10 


10 


mill. 


1 


Primer. 


9:10- 


9:20 


10 


min. 


1 


First Eeader. 


9:20- 


9:35 


15 


min. 


2 


Second Reader. 


9:35-10:15 


40 


min. 


3-7 


Arithmetic. 


10:15-10:30 


15 


min. 


1&2 


Number work. 


10:30-10:40 


10 


min. 


All 


Recess. 


10:40-11:00 


20 


min. 


6&7 


Grammar. 


11:00-11:10 


10 


min. 


4 


Language. 


11:10-11:20 


10 


min. 


5 


Language. 


11 :20-ll :35 


15 


min. 


3 


Reading. 


11:35-11:50 


15 


min. 


4 


Reading. 


11:50-12:00 


10 


min. 


All 


Writing. 


12 :00- 


1:00 


60 


min. 


All 


Recess, plav, manual 
training school, gar- 
dening, cooking. 


1:00- 


1:10 


10 


mill. 


1 


Primer. 


1:10- 


1:20 


10 


min. 


1 


First Reader. 


1:20- 


1:35 


15 


min. 


5 


Reading. 


1:35- 


1:50 


15 


min. 


Q&l 


Reading. 


1:50- 


2:00 


10 


min. 


4 


Hygiene. 


2:00- 


2:15 


15 


min. 


5&G 


History. 


2:15- 


2:30 


15 


min. 


7 


History and Civics. 


2:30- 


2:40 


10 


min. 


1,2,3 


Language Work. 


2:40- 


2:50 


10 


min. 


All 


Recess. 


2:50- 


3:10 


20 


min. 


3-7 


Spelling. 


3 :10- 


3:20 


10 


min. 


6 


Hygiene. 


3-20- 


3:35 


15 


min. 


4&5 


Geography. 


3:35- 


3:50 


15 


min. 


&&7 


Geography. 


3:50- 


4:00 


10 


min. 


7 


Agriculture. 



The teacher should always inake a program of study for each 
grade as well as a program of recitations for herself. 



The Two-Teacher School. 

In the elementary school taught by two teachers there should 
be a clean division of work on the basis of grade. This proposi- 
tion seems almost too evident for statement, but the author of 



38 



the Manual has found numerous schools during the past year in 
which pupils were divided promiscuously between the two teach- 
ers seemingly without reference to grade or common sense. If 
only seven grades are represented it is usually best for the pri- 
mary teacher to take the first, second and third grades, and the 
other teacher the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grades. It is 
folly for a two-teacher school to attempt much high school work. 
Under no circumstances should more than the eighth grade be 
offered. Most counties in South Carolina are able to develop a 
rural high school such as is contemplated by the High School Act 
within walking or riding distance of all ninth grade pupils. Such 
pupils should be encouraged to attend these high schools where 
they can receive attention without detriment to the pupils of the 
elementary schools. 



Suggested Program for a Two-Teacher School, 
Primary Grades. 



Hour. 


Time. 


Grade. 


Subject. 


8:45- 9:00 , 


15 


min. 


All 


Opening. 


9:00- 9-15 


15 


min. 


1 


Primer. 


9:15- 9:30 


15 


min. 


1 


First Reader. 


9:30- 9:45 


15 


min. 


2 


Second Reader. 


9:45-10:00 


15 


min. 


3 


Third Reader. 


10:00-10:15 


15 


min. 


1 


Number Work. 


10:15-10:30 


15 


min. 


2 


Arithmetic. 


10:30-10:45 


15 


min. 


All 


Recess. 


10:45-11:00 


15 


min. 


3 


Arithmetic. 


11:00-11:15 


15 


min. 


All 


Stories and Conversa- 
tion. 


11:15-11:30 


15 


min. 


All 


Writing. 


11:30-11:45 


15 


min. 


2-3 


SiDelling and Dictation. 


11:45-12:00 


15 


min. 


1 


Primer. 


12:00- 1:00 


60 


min. 


All 


Recess, play, school 
gardening. 


1:00- 1:15 


15 


min. 


1 


First Reader. 


1:15- 1:30 


15 


min. 


2 


Second Reader. 


1:30- 1:45 


15 


min. 


2«&3 


Language Work. 


1:45- 2:00 


15 


min. 


All 


Stories and oral read- 
ing by pupils. 


2:00- 2:15 


15 


min. 


All 


Drawing. 



39 



Hour. 


Time. 


Grade. 


Subject. 


2:15- 2:30 


15 min. 


All 


Eecess. 


2:30- 2:45 


15 min. 


3 


Eeading. 


2:45- 3:15 


30 min. 


All 


Nature study and man- 
ual work correlating 
with Reading, Num- 
ber Work and Draw- 
ing. 


3:15- 3:30 


15 min. 


All 


Hygiene. 


3:30- 3:45 
3:45 


15 min. 


All 


Singing and Memory 

Gems. 
Dismissal. 



At intervals between recitations teacher should direct the seat 
work of pupils. 

Advanced Grades. 



Hour. 


Time. 


Grade. 


Subject. 


8:45- 9:00 


15 


min. 


All 


Opening. 


9:00- 9:20 


20 


min. 


4 


Reading. 


9:20- 9:40 


20 


min. 


5 


Reading. 


9:40-10:00 


20 


min. 


6«&7 


Reading. 


10:00-10:15 


15 


min. 


4&5 


Spelling. 


10:15-10:30 


15 


min. 


6&7 


Spelling. 


10:30-10:45 


15 


min. 


All 


Receys. 


10:45-11:10 


25 


min. 


4&5 


Arithmetic. 


11:10-11:35 


25 


min. 


6&7 


Arithmetic. 


11 :35-ll :45 


10 


min. 


4 


Hygiene. 


11 :45-12 :00 


15 


min. 


All 


Nature Study and Ag- 
riculture. 


12:00- 1:00 


60 


min. 


All 


Recess for dinner, play, 
manual work, school 
gardening and cook- 
ing. 


1:00- 1:15 


15 


min. 


4 


Language. 


1:15- 1:30 


15 


min. 


5 


Language. 


1:30- 1:45 


15 


min. 


6 


Grammar, Language. 


1:45- 2:00 


15 


min. 


7 


Grammar, Language. 


2:00- 2:15 


15 


min. 


All 


Writing and Drawing. 


2:15- 2:30 


15 


min. 


All 


Recess. 



40 
Hour. Time. Grade. Subject. 



2:30- 2:45 


15 min. 


6 


Hygiene. 


2:45- 3:00 


15 min. 


4 


Geography. 


3:00- 3-15 


15 min. 


5 


Geography. 


3:15- 3:30 


15 min. 


6&7 


Geography. 


3:30- 3:45 


15 min. 


5&6 


History. 


3:45- 4:00 


15 min. 


7 


History and Civics. 



If high school work is attempted in a two-teacher school, it 
will shorten the recitation periods indicated above. The making 
of a schedule for a school with three or more teachers is a 
relatively simple matter. If a school employs three or more 
teachers, it should usually teach two years of the high school 
work unless another high school is situated near enough to 
accommodate the pupils who have finished the elementary 
grades. Under the State High School Law, a rural school with 
fifteen pupils above the seventh grade and employing three teach- 
ers, one of whom gives all his time to the high school work, may 
receive State aid in an amount not to exceed $300.00. Rural trus- 
tees should endeavor to take advantage of this Act whenever it 
is possible. 



41 



Directions and Suggestions for Teaching the Course of Study 

READING. 

The ultimate basis of all knowledge is the personal experience 
of the individual. In the acquisition of this basal element every 
child born into the world must begin civilization anew. In terms 
of this experience he must interpret the universe and the com- 
pleteness of his interpretation will depend on the vitality and 
richness of the fundamental concepts obtained through his own 
senses by personal contact with nature and society. Since healthy 
intellectual development demands that his mental images should 
possess the definiteness and concreteness which alone come from 
vital personal experience, the first and greatest task of the parent 
and teacher is to bring the child into living touch with the sig- 
nificant elements in his environment. 

It is manifestly impossible for any individual by his own un- 
aided experience to rediscover more than the merest rudiments 
of the great fund of knowledge. Man has developed a spoken 
and written language, and through this the knowledge acquired 
by one generation is transmitted to successive generations, and 
each of us becomes the potential heir to all that has been before 
us. Reading is the key to these storehouses of knowledge and 
rightly ranks first in importance among the studies of the ele- 
mentary schools. With its two accompaniments, spelling and 
writing, it is the most serious task of the first four school years. 
No matter how crowded the daily program, nothing should be 
allowed to trespass on the reading period. The elementary 
schools of South Carolina would in most cases gain time and 
efficiency by doubling the reading period, even though this 
should make necessary the elimination or postponement of some 
other subject. We should face frankly the fact that most of our 
pupils are poor readers. Not only are they unable to stand up 
before the class and read distinctly and with expression the 
selections found in their readers, but a few questions will usually 
develop the fact that the apprehension of the thought is even 
more hazy than its expression. The process of getting the 
thought from the printed page is frequently labored, even among 
the pupils of the upper grades of the elementary schools. It is 



42 

no unusual thing to find pupils struggling with problems in 
arithmetic in which the mathematics is easy enough, but in 
which the inability of the learner to understand the language 
of the statement has interposed an almost insurmountable diffi- 
culty. Much of the lack of interest and most of the poor work 
in other school subjects may be traced to the same source — the 
failure of the pupils to translate the unfamiliar words of the 
book into clear-cut ideas. 

Yet, how often have we seen conscientious teachers slight a 
reading lesson and hurry into some other subject under the false 
notion that it was more important, when the truth is that the 
inability of the pupils to read was making her efforts in the 
other subject almost fruitless. 

The reading lesson is especially important to the country child. 
His intimate contact with a simple environment has given him a 
rather definite stock of basal ideas. His vocabulary, however, is 
usually much m.ore limited than that of the city child, and he 
frequently fails to make connection between ideas perfectly 
familiar to him and the words which the book uses to designate 
these ideas. Recently I visited a school in which an intelligent 
fourth grade was reading an account of the wanderings of 
Ulysses. In the story some of the companions of the hero had 
visited the home of Circe the Enchantress, and had been turned 
into hogs. Ulysses himself set out to find his men and had also 
reached the door of Circe's house when he was met by Mercury, 
who admonished him of his danger and said : "Stop. Dost 
thou not know that this is the house of Circe the Enchantress, 
who has changed thy companions into filthy swine, and hast shut 
them up in a loathsome sty?" Inquiry developed the fact that 
not one of the class knew the meaning of either "swine" or "sty," 
although the ideas pig and pig-pen were perfectly familiar to 
them. The true teacher of reading who deliberately sets about 
to enlarge the working vocabulary of her pupils will be surprised 
at the number of common words which are meaningless to them. 
A pupil will sometimes develop admirable facility in the pro- 
nunciation of words which have for him absolutely no signifi- 
cance. We should not be deceived by this. It is said that when 
Milton became blind, he was accustomed to have his daughter 
read to him from the books which he loved. Much of his reading 
was in Latin, and the daughter learned to call the Latin words 
perfectly without in the slightest degree being able to under- 



43 

stand their significance. To Milton himself the language con- 
veyed a lucid meaning. Can we not find many a parallel case in 
the school rooms of South Carolina ? 

When a pupil has truly learned to read, that is, when he has 
acquired the ability in many subjects quickly and surely to 
translate the printed page into definite concrete mental images, 
he has a solid basis for an education. The storing of the facts 
in the memory is a mere detail. Having acquired this ability, 
many a man has through his own unaided efforts obtained a 
well-rounded education. Let us make South Carolina schools 
famous for their good reading. 

What is Keading? 

For many years, perhaps centuries, after the development of 
language the spoken word was the principal means by which 
thought was communicated. The spoken symbols representing 
the ideas of the speaker awaken similar ideas associated with 
the same sounds in the mind of the hearer. It is evident that 
each must interpret the symbols in the terms of his own experi- 
ence. These, however, are similar enough to insure at least a 
measure of understanding. For the child, as well as the prim- 
itive race, the tongue and the ear are the principal means of 
communicating thought. As Dr. Harris expressed it, "Children 
and uneducated people are 'ear-minded.' " 

With the development of a written language the process of 
communication becomes radically different. The eye and not 
the ear becomes the important sense. Certain arbitrary written 
symbols now stand for the spoken word and the mental image 
back of it. These symbols awaken similar ideas in the mind of 
the reader, and thought is communicated as perfectly as the 
varjnng experiences of the two individuals will permit. In the 
process the hand and the eye take the place of the tongue and 
the ear. We tend to become "eye-minded." In English and the 
other occidental languages the written symbol stands both for the 
.spoken word and the idea it represents. In silent reading we 
translate the visible written symbols directly into the ideas 
which they signify. In every day life this silent thought-getting 
from the printed page constitutes 99 per cent, of all our read- 
ing. Ease and facility in doing it are necessary to the enjoy- 
ment of reading itself and to success in other studies. To develop 



44 

this ability in the greatest measure should at all times be the 
conscious aim of the teacher. 

In true oral reading we translate the printed symbols into 
thought, and at the same time into vocal expression. Oral read- 
ing in school is a necessary step in the training for silent read- 
ing, is also one of the surest means of stimulating interest 
in school studies, and throughout life is a constant source of 
pleasure. To teach the pupils to read aloud with ease, with 
distinctness, and with proper expression of the thought should 
be a second conscious aim of the teacher. 

We have already referred to the dead frocess sojrietimes 
called oral reading^ in which the printed word is pronounced 
aloud but without any apprehension of the idea for which it 
stands. This is not true reading, and the pupil derives from 
it the same benefit that Milton's daughter obtained from reading 
the Latin aloud to her father without any knowledge of the 
language. The teacher should consciously aim to avoid this 
worthless and harmful exercise which is found so frequently in 
our schools. 

Training in Silent Reading. 

An extended observation of the South Carolina schools con- 
vinces me that we are doing very little to train our pupils in 
silent reading. In many school rooms the pupils seem to be 
unable to study without moving their lips and whispering the 
words as they read. This is the natural result of the usual 
method of teaching reading. In nine-tenths of the classes which 
I have observed the command of the teacher to read has meant 
that the pupil should look at the words, move his lips, and pro- 
nounce them aloud. Eeading has to him no other meaning. 
When I have said to a pupil. "Look at the sentence and tell me 
what it says," he is either helpless or will begin the whispering 
process described above. 

Many teachers have the bad habit of calling up the first 
reader class, one at a time, and of pointing out the words with a 
pencil as the pupil is expected to call them. This process, if long 
continued, is absolutely prohibitive of progress in true reading. 
After reading a page in this way, the pupil is usually unable 
to state a single thought which has been obtained from it. 
Moreover, he is forming the very bad habit of using words with- 
out thought, and this should be discouraged even with the young. 



45 

Of course there is a word-learning stage in ever}^ lesson in which 
there is little reading. To insure true reading the teacher will 
keep up a constant review of the pages on which the words are 
familiar. She will let the little reader step out of line, face the 
class, read the line silently, then look up and tell the class what 
it says. When one pupil has read a page in this way, another 
will take his place till the review is completed. This method 
not only cultivates the ability to get the thought by silent read- 
ing, but gives the natural expression for which many teachers 
struggle in vain. The teacher who has never tried this kind 
of work will be surprised at the immediate response by the 
pupils. 

In the second and third grades, merely to read the paragraph 
in the usual way, however well this maj' be done, will not neces- 
sarily develop the ability to read silentl}'. Let the class turn 
to some review lesson, have them read a paragraph silently, then 
tell the substance of it. When one has told all he got from the 
reading, let another supplement as long as anything can be 
added. If a material point has been omitted, let the class re-read 
and discover it. In the beginning of this w^ork it will frequently 
be necessary for the teacher to ask questions in order to ascertain 
what the pupil has found in the paragraph. After a little train- 
ing the class should be allowed to read longer selections, or even 
whole stories, and to give the thought in their own language. 
Pupils should be encouraged to read special selections from the 
school library and to tell the story to the class. The skilful 
teacher can make this exercise take on all the interest of a good 
game. Its value in language training is too obvious to need 
special mention. If work of this kind be continued throughout 
the first four school years, we will have little whisper study left 
in our schools, and there will be a marked increase in the ability 
of our pupils to master the other subjects which are now giving 
us so much trouble. 

Training in Oral Reading. 

The primary purpose in oral reading is to convey to others 
who are listening the full, clear meaning of the printed page. 
Most of the oral reading which we see (the word "see" is used 
intentionally), seems to have for its object the mere testing of 
the child's ability to call words. Little attention is given to 



46 

his breathing, his enunciation, his expression, the carrying 
power of his voice, or his ability to hold the attention of his 
hearers. Most of the characteristics of good oral reading are 
usually absent. The very nature of the recitation usually mili- 
tates against the object to be attained. The pupils, especially 
in the country school, are brought close to the teacher. They 
read to her and not to the class. All the members of the class 
have their books open at the selection to be read, thus making 
good reading unnecessary to their understanding of the story. 
The pupil who is reading realizes perfectly that his voice can 
give nothing which his classmates do not already possess, and 
he is thus left without a lively incentive to make himself under- 
stood. The participation of the class in the recitation is usually 
confined to the picking out of words which he has mispro- 
nounced. To be sure, some work of this kind must be done by 
the teacher as a training in silent reading, but she should care- 
fully distinguish between this and true oral reading for expres- 
sion. Expressive reading should be the last step in the study of 
a lesson and should frequently be conducted with selections for 
review. The reader should already have mastered the thought 
and should be free to give his full attention to its expression. 
He should be far enough removed from the listening section of 
the class to insure an incentive to develop carrying power in his 
voice. The other members of the class should close their books, 
and their work should consist in indicating by a pre-arranged 
signal when the voice becomes indistinct or the meaning hazy. 
Special stories from the library or from supplementary readers 
should be assigned to the pupils, who should study them care- 
fully and read them to the other members of the class. 

At somewhat longer intervals this exercise in oral reading 
should include the whole school. If the teachers of South Caro- 
lina will persist in this kind of training, the readings and reci- 
tations which make up our school closing exercises will cease to 
be the mere pantomime which is often found at present. 

Enlarging the Child's Vocabulary. 

When the' child starts to school he already possesses a limited 
spoken vocabulary which he uses with considerable accuracy and 
effectiveness. His first task is to learn to recognize quickly the 
written symbols for these words. Before he progresses far, how- 



47 . 

ever, he Avill meet with other words which he does not habitually 
use and of whose meaning he is either in complete ignorance, or 
of which he possesses an incomplete idea. New facts in nature, 
science, the industries, history, civics, and social relations, will 
be hidden away in the words of his reader. Occasionally there 
will be a new word for a familiar idea. To put meaning into 
these words and make them a part of the child's using vocabulary 
is an important function of the reading lesson. 

It is through reading that we normally enlarge our vocabulary. 
The dictionary serves merely as a check on the inferences which 
we draw from the context of the word as we meet it repeatedly 
in our reading. Through explanations, use in sentences, by 
synonjnns, and by definition, the new word should be made 
familiar at the time when its meaning will be most easily made 
clear in the context, and when it is necessary to the full compre- 
hension of the thought. A good reading lesson is necessarily a 
lesson in nature study, history, civics, geography, agriculture, 
mythology, or in any other subject whose vocabulary occurs in 
the selection to be read. If the words "caterpillar" and "butter- 
fly" occur in the first reader, an explanation or observation 
showing the relation between these two forms of insect life 12 
not merely an interesting diversion, but is necessary to the full 
meaning of the words. On page IT of the Wheeler Second 
Reader, we find the little three stanza selection, 

"In the heart of a seed, 

Buried deep, so deep, 

A dear little plant 

Lay fast asleep." 
The word "seed" forms a part of the vocabulary of most children. 
The idea involved, however, is in most cases imperfect. If 
the teacher in connection with this lesson and the preceding one 
will have the children examine a seed, find the little plant asleep 
in it, wake up the plant by placing it between moist blotters, the 
word would be much richer in meaning to the child. I once heard 
a class reading a very interesting story of the defense of Bunker 
Hill. In the selection the words "fortify" and "fortification" 
occurred frequently. Inquiry developed the fact that not a 
member of the class understood what it meant to "fortify" the 
hill. The word should at least call up the mental image of a 
line of men with picks and shovels digging a ditch and throw- 
ing the dirt up into a wall behind which they might be pro- 



, 48 

tected from the bullets of an enemy. Sometimes a single sen- 
tence might demand the attention of a class for an entire reci- 
tation period. Let the teacher who doubts this statement 
endeavor in less time to develop a concrete imagery for the 
Revolutionary slogan, "Taxation without representation is 
tyranny." We have taught nothing until the words "taxation," 
"representation," and "tyranny" each calls up a clear mental 
picture. Each word contains an important lesson in civics. Fre- 
quently in the study of a lesson the leacher should stop the 
reading and ask the pupil to describe the picture called up by a 
word or group of words. It will be discovered that the brightest 
children think most concretely, that is, their mental pictures 
are most clear-cut. Ordinarily we do not stop the train of thought 
long enough to translate each word into its mental image, but 
clear and confident thinking demands that we should be sure of 
our ability to do this when we wish. 

We can not hope to do any considerable part of the child's 
reading during the regular recitation period. If we awaken his 
interest and give him a method and motive for his individual 
reading, and then supply him through the school library with 
good books adapted to extensive reading, Ave may rest confident 
in the final result. 

We can not depend on the study of the dictionary to enlarge 
the using vocabulary to any considerable extent. This has a 
very definite place in determining pronunciation, in discrim- 
inating between the finer shades of meaning in familiar words, 
and in the definiti'on of words wholly unfamiliar. The pupil 
should be taught definitely how to use the dictionary. A copy 
of the pamphlet entitled, "How to use the Dictionary," published 
for free distribution by G. & C. Merriam, Springfield, Mass., 
should be in the hands of every teacher. 

Reading when properly taught, with due attention to the 
word content, will give the pupil an introduction to the subject 
matter of the other school studies, and those sudden and terrify- 
ing plunges into unknown depths which now characterize our 
school work will no longer be necessary. 

Supplementary Reading. 

The reading of the children should by no means be confined 
to the adopted Readers. The pupils should not be required to 
purchase unauthorized books, but the school library should be 



49 

supplied with books suited to all grades, and by special assign- 
ment and otherwise the children should be encouraged to read 
books adapted to their interest and understanding. In every 
school library there should be one or more sets of supplementary 
readers which may be placed in the hands of the class to develop 
ability in sight reading, and to add variety to the work. These 
sets of supplementary readers may be obtained as one of the 
annual additions now provided for by the State Library Law. 
When the regular readers have become hard for the class, it will 
awaken new interest and give fresh courage to them to turn to 
easier portions of the supplementary readers and enjoy the sto- 
ries. 

Suggested Supplementary Reading for the Elementary 

Grades. 

Third Grade. 

Baldwin: Fifty Famous Stories Retold. 

Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (abridged and simplified form). 

Dopp: The Early Cave Men. 

Dopp: The Tree Dwellers. 

Eggleston : Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans. 

Scudder: Verse and Prose for Beginners. 

Shaw : Big People and Little People of Other Lands. 

Fourth Grade. 

Grimm's Tales. 

Kipling: Just So Stories. 

Scudder : Fables and Folk Stories. 

Sewell: Black Beauty. 

Wyss: Swiss Family Robinson. 

Fifth Grade. 

Arabian Nights. 

Baldwin: American Book of Golden Deeds. 

Brown : In the Days of Giants. 

Harris: Uncle Remus. 

Page: Two Little Confederates. 

Scudder : Book of Legends. 

Stevenson : Child's Garden of Verses. 

4-T. M. 



50 

Sixth Grade. 

Defoe: Eobinson Crusoe. (Larger Edition.) 

Hawthorne : Wonderbook. 

Hall : Half-hours in Southern History. 

Kingsley: The Heroes. 

Longfellow: Hiawatha. 

Ruskin : King of the Golden River. 

Seventh Grade. 

Ayrton: Child Life in Japan. 

Barbour : For the Honor of the School. 

Bolton : Lives of Girls Who Became Famous. 

Church : Stories from Homer. 

Kipling: Jungle Book. 

Mims & Payne : Southern Prose and Poetry. 

Simms: Yemassee. 

Snyder : Selections from the Old Testament. 

PRIMARY READING. 

The principal aims of the first year in reading are: 

1. To teach the child to recognize at sight a small vocabulary 
of written or printed words. 

2. To teach him to read with correct expression short sentences 
containing these words. 

3. To develop an ability by means of sound symbols to learn 
new words for himself. 

"VVe still find teachers in South Carolina who use the old alpha- 
betic method, that is, they teach the names of the letters first 
and try to teach the pupil to pronounce the word by calling over 
the names of the letters composing it. There are many valid ob- 
jections to this order of procedure. 

1. The letter is without meaning or association in the mind of 
the child and possesses no intrinsic interest. 

2. The name of the letter gives only a slight key to its sound. 
The names of the letters composing the word C-A-T when 
blended together make see-a-tee, and not our familiar "cat." I 
have seen pupils during the past year who have called the letters 
on many pages in the First Reader, but who could not read the 
first page of the book. 



51 

3. The concentration of the attention on the letters rather 
than on the word itself tends to produce slow, expressionless read- 
ing. 

4. The alphabetic method renders the assignment of seat work 
to beginners difficult. 

5. All modern text books are based on the assumption that the 
word method will predominate in the teaching. We shall assume 
that the teachers throughout the State will follow the principle 
on which our readers are designed and will use a combination 
word-sentence-phonic method. 

Simple Material and Apparatus Needed by the Teacher or 
Primary Reading. 

1. A collection of simple toys and objects in which the chil- 
dren are interested — a ball, a box, a doll, a marble, etc. Also a 
small collection of good pictures. 

2. A good blackboard. The reading of the first few weeks 
should be done principally from words and sentences written 
on the blackboard by the teacher as they are spoken by the 
children. The words should not be printed by the teacher, but 
should be written in the best script she can command, modeled 
after the adopted writing series. 

3. Manila paper of postcard weight. 

4. A black "standard checking crayon" or crayola for writing 
in broad strokes on cards and chart. 

5. A twenty-page chart made by fastening large strips of blank 
newspaper or wrapping paper between two half-rounds, inch 
strips, or laths. 

6. A box of colored crayon for teachers' illustrations. 

7. A common window shade with spring roller to be fastened 
to woodwork above blackboard and used to cover sight reading 
written on the board. 

Use of Material. 

a. A square yard of manila paper should be cut into strips 
18 inches long by 3 1-2 inches wide. On these strips should be 
written with checking crayon the sentences as they are learned 
by the children. It will thus be possible to review all the pupil 
has' learned without the trouble of writing the sentences on the 
board. 



52 

b. Some of the maiiila board should be cut into strips 4 1-2 
inches wide and 7 inches long, and on these may be written for 
ready review the words which the teacher wishes the children 
to remember. If the word is written on one side and printed 
on the other, this will facilitate the transition from script to 
print. 

c. The words may also be written with pen on manila strips 
1 inch by V2 iiich for seat work by pupils. Each pupil should 
have a large manila envelope to contain his words. 

d. The chart should gradually be filled with the connected sen- 
tences and used for a more extended review by individual pupils 
as an exercise in "keeping the place." 

This simple apparatus is inexpensive and will prove much 
more effective than the most costly chart which could be pur- 
chased. 

Beginning to Read. 

The following suggestive lessons based on the Wheeler Primer 
have been contributed by Miss Leila A. Russell, of Winthrop 
College, County Supervisor of Rural Schools, York County : 

Lesson 1. 

Our own names are for each of us among the most interesting 
words in the language. Every child has a desire to read and 
write his name. In this lesson teach each child to recognize the 
written form of his name. Men and women sometimes use 
visiting cards on which their names are written. Say to the 
class: "Let us play we have visiting cards this morning and I'll 
make your cards." Write simply the given name in a large, 
bold hand on a piece of card board 4i^ inches by 7 inches, and 
give each child his card. Now each child may introduce himself 
to the class by stepping out before it and showing the card. 
Teacher may say : "I can speak your names, but I shall let the 
chalk do it on the blackboard, each one look at his card closely 
and the one whose name the chalk puts on the board may step 
just in front of the class, but face the board." Teacher con- 
tinues until she has written every name on the board. "Now 
let us see who can find his name on the board. Mary may try, 
Nellie may try, James may find his, etc. As your name is 
erased, children, you may take your seats." (Erase one at a 
time, ) 



53 

For seat work the children could place shoepegs or grains of 
corn on the lines of the letters forming their names. 

Lesson 2, 

Game: Take up the cards. Have children stand in a row. 
Explain what is meant by head and foot of the class. Tell them 
you are going to hold up the cards one at a time and call on 
some child to tell you whose name is on the card. If the one 
called on tells, he may go head and have a head mark, if he 
fails he must go foot and be given nothing. The one receiving 
the highest number of head marks wins the game. During the 
first part of the game call on each child to recognize his own 
name and later try the other names on him. 

Have each child stretch his arm out and write his name in the 
air. The teacher will stand by the child and direct these move- 
ments. 

Lesson 3. 

On the first sheet of the blank chart write the names of the 
pupils. A ladder could be drawn on the sheet and the name of 
the smallest child placed on the first round. See how far up 
the ladder the children can climb in recognizing their names. 
Let each child write his name on the board. The letters should 
be large enough to insure a free arm movement. Every day the 
lesson should close with an assignment of writing at the board. 
A little later, writing should be given as seat work. Use large 
soft pencil and unruled paper. 

Lesson 4. 
"Have you little people any pets at home? What are they? 
I know a home where there is the dearest pet. Every one in 
the home loves it, but one person in the family seems to love 
this pet more than the others do. I believe, too, that the pet 
loves her more. I wonder if you Iniow what pet this is." Tell 
the children, if they do not know, that it is a baby. Show a 
picture of a baby and write Baby on the board. Ask whom 
baby seems to love best of all. Repeat several times and have 
children repeat also : 

Baby, Baby, Baby, 

Baby Loves Mamma. 

Baby, Baby, Baby, 

Mamma Loves Baby. 



54 

Write the above on the board and have the children repeat 
as you point to the words. Try having a pupil point to the 
words and repeat it. Point to the first word. "What is it?" 
"Find Bahy somewhere else?" Look at the last word, repeating 
the lines in concert and pointing to the words. "What is this 
word?" (Pointing to loves.) In every lesson review all words 
previously learned. 

Lesson 5. 

Repeat the four lines, again pointing to the words. Say, "I 
know someone else who loves mamma." "Here he is." (Tak- 
ing Harry by the hand and writing, Harry loves Mamma.) 
Continue until there is such a statement made about each child 
and written on the board. "Find the place on the blackboard 
where something was said about you, Harry." "Read what was 
said, Nellie." Continue this until every sentence has been read, 
and read as sentences. Do not allow word calling. The teacher 
can make other sentences drilling on these same words. She 
might say, "The chalk will tell some one else Nellie or Harry 
loves," writing : 

Nellie loves Baby. 

Harry loves Baby. 

Baby loves Harry. 

Baby loves Nellie. 

Erase one sentence at a time, and after doing so, have a pupil 
tell what you erased. 

Lesson 6. 

"Let us all play we are visiting this morning. Let us take this 
part of the room for the house we are to visit, and Nellie and 
Lucy may be hostesses. What will you say first to these little 
girls when to come to see them, John?" (How do you do, 
Nellie? How do you do, Lucy?) When each child has called on 
Nellie and Lucy and these little girls have replied, asking the 
same question of their guest, show the words written on a large 
strip of paper. Have the children say in concert these words 
as you point to each one. Write the same sentence on the board, 
addressing a different child each time. Let the child who 
recognizes what is written, go to the child addressed and ask 
the question. Let each child write How do you do? on the board 
under the teacher's copy. 



55 

Lesson 7. 
Make a second leaf for your chart writing: 





Baby, Baby, Baby, 






Baby loves mamma. 






Baby, Baby, Baby, 






Mamma loves Baby. 




Mamma 


Loves 


Baby 


loves 


Baby 


Mamma 


Baby 


Mamma 


loves 



These words should be written on slips of paper to be arranged 
by the pupil as seat work, in the order of sentences written on 
the board or chart. Matching sentences with his single words 
from his envelope may now be a regular form of seat work. 

Lesson 8. 

Teacher might say to the children, "I want to introduce you 
to some of the friends you are going to meet in your new 
reader. One is a friend that almost every child loves. I sus- 
pect each one of you has such a friend in your home. Haven't 
you a little friend that says, 'mew, mew,' when you speak to 
her? Let us fix a card for her name. Here is her picture. 
What is her name?" (Kitty.) Teacher should write it on the 
board. "Now you haA^e been introduced to Kitty, and you are 
seeing her for the first time here in school. Let us give her a 
morning greeting." 

How do you do, Kitty? 

"I'll play that I am Kitty. What must I say when you speak 
tome?" (Mew-mew.) "I'll write your part and mine too on the 
board." 

Children : "How do you do, Kitty?" 

Kitty : "Mew-mew ! " 

"Let us call Kitty three times." 

"Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!" 

"Let's be Kitty and say Mew-mew !" "Call her again." 
"Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!" 

"Now greet her." "How do j'ou do?" 

Teacher should have the lines repeated until memorized, then 
write on the board and repeat several times, pointing to the 



50 

words as each is spoken. Continue work on this as suggested in 
Lesson 7. Write this jingle on the chart you are making: 

Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, 
Mew-mew-mew. 
Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, 
How do you do ? 

Lesson 9. 

"Tell some things you can do, children. I see you do many 
things here at school." In reply to this the pupils may say, eat^ 
sleep^ talk^ walk^ run^ hop^ ship, jump, sing, etc., but only certain 
ones of this list are needed in order to read the Primer. These 
are run, sing, and they should be written on the board. Prob- 
ably it would be well to add hop and jump. They will be easily 
taught as action words and will enable one to make a greater 
number of sentences bringing in familiar words. I should write 
these words on the board with capital letters : 

Run 
Hop 
Sing 
Jump. 

Teacher may now point to the first word and say, "I want 
to see all you children do this, what is it?" Have the children 
run across the room. "Some one find the word that told you to 
run." Continue until pupils have performed the act for each 
word, and then found the word in the list. Now try the fol- 
lowing: "Mr. Chalk is going to speak to certain ones, telling 
them what to do." 

Eun, Nellie. 

Run, Harry. 

Hop, Lucy. 

Hop, Mary. 

Jump, John. 

Jump, Paul. 

Sing, Louise. 

"What was Nellie told to do? Show me the word. Find it 
somewhere else?" The drill with hop, jump and sing may be 
done in the same way, having each child perform the act. 



57 

Lesson 10. 

Each new word of phrase or sentence learned should be written 
on a large piece of cardboard, say 4i/^"x7". It should also be 
written on a slip of paper and added to those in the envelopes. 
These cards and slips of paper may be used in numerous ways 
to drill on words. 

The following game could be used : Have the children stand 
in a row. Explain what is meant by the head of the class and 
state that every time a child recognizes what is on a card as 
it is held up, he is going to be allowed to step to the head of 
the class and will be given a head mark on the blackboard. The 
one who gets the largest number of head marks wins the game. 
All children like movement in a recitation. 

Lesson 11. 

"We are tired sitting, I suspect. Mr. Chalk will tell you what 
to do to rest." 

Run, run, run, 
Jump, jump, jump, 
Hop, hop, hop, 
Sing, sing, sing. 

The teacher will have to explain that when the word comes 
first in the sentence we write it with a capital letter. Add a 
child's name to each of the commands; as, Run, run, Nellie, etc. 
Teacher may now teach can in this way: "Tell me something 
Nellie can do, Lucy." (Nellie can run.) "Mr. Chalk will say 
exactly what Lucy said." "What was it, Harry?" "Class say it." 
The teacher writes on the board, "Nellie can run." "Read what 
Mr. Chalk said, John." The teacher may continue saying, "Mr. 
Chalk likes to talk. See what he says this time." Write the 
same things in a number of places on the board. Can jump, can 
hop, can sing, may all be dealt with in the same way. Now erase 
one sentence at a time and have the class tell you what you 
erased. Make the four large cards needed and write can jump, 
can hop, can sing, can run on them. The teacher should do this 
out of school hours. The slips bearing these words should also 
be added to the envelopes. Make another leaf for your chart, 
bringing in all the words the child knows, if possible. Send the 
children to their seats to build up these sentences with slips 
in their envelopes. 



58 

The new chart leaf will be something like this : 

Kitty can run. 
Kitty can jump. 
Mamma loves Kitty. 
Lucy loves Nellie. 
How do you do, Mamma? 
Harry loves John. 
Kitty loves Baby. 
John can jump. 
Mamma can sing. 
Sing, Mamma, sing. 
Run, Harry, run. 
Can Kitty run? 
Kitty can run. 
Can Nellie jump? 
Nellie can jump. 

Lesson 12. 

"Now let us see who in this class will have the sharpest eyes. 
You may look all around the room and see how many things 
you can see. The people who have the sharpest eyes will see 
the most things. Now close your eyes and try to see them in 
your mind. Can you see just how I look? Tell me what kind 
of a dress I have on." "Tell me one thing you can see, Harry." 
"Begin by saying I." (I can see a chair.) "Tell me something 
you can see, John." (I can see a ball.) "Tell me something 
you can see, Lucy." (I can see a bucket.) "Something you can 
see, Nellie." (I can see a leaf.) The teacher may accept numer- 
ous answers, writing only those that the children can read. Many 
objects mentioned can be drawn with just a few lines instead 
of writing the words. Have the children open their eyes. Ask 
who said, "I can see a leaf?" "Mr. Chalk has said the same 
thing on the board. What was it?" "Class say it." "Here it is; 
class say it with me as I point." Continue the work with each 
sentence on the board. Give drills on the individual words, / 
see a leaf, etc. Add the new words and phrases to the cards and 
envelopes. 



59 

Lesson 13. 

The following may be given as a drill. Write these sentences 
on the board : 

Can you see Nellie? 
Do you love Mamma? 
Can you see Harry? 
Do you see Lucy? 
^ Can Nellie see John? 

Do you love Baby? 
Can you jump? 
Can Nellie run? 
Can baby sing? 
How do you do ? 

Tell the pupils when they are ready to answer these questions 
you will let them make a statement doing so. Having done this, 
it would be well to let the children ask the questions of each 
other, e. g., John turns to Harry and says, "Can you see Nellie?" 
These questions, many of the replies, and other sentences con- 
taining such phrases as a leaf^ a chair^ a hat, a ladder, etc., 
should now form a new chart leaf. 

Lesson 14. 

Introduce three more friends the children are to meet when 
they get their Primers: Rover, Bell, and Mamma Rahhit. This 
can be done in the same way Kitty was introduced. Try to use 
all words in other sentences than those in the book, so that 
the thought of the Primer will be fresh and new to them. The 
teacher could easily make up a story about Bell, Rover and 
Mamma Rahhit and let the children act it, just a short story. 
Fix the cards and the slii^s for these new words and drill. 

Lesson 15. 

"We have said that Mamma loves Baby, and in fact, that all 
of us love Baby. Why is it we love and care for Baby so ten- 
derly?" "Baby is little and can not care for himself." "Haven't 
you some other pet that is little and for which you must care?" 
(Kitty is little.) "Big brother must be kind and care for Nellie, 
too. Why?" (Nellie is little.) "Name some one or something 
that is little." "What did we say about Baby?" "About Kitty?" 



60 

"About Nellie?" etc. The teacher may now say: "Mr. Chalk is 
going to say the same thing about Baby, Kitty, Nellie, etc.," and 
write the sentences several times on the board. 

Baby is little. 
Baby is little. 
Kitty is little. 
Nellie is little. 
Kitty is little. 

Have each sentence read. Having written is little on a card 
before time for the lesson, ask the children to find the card that 
tells what is said about Baby, etc. Make a leaf for the chart. 

Lesson 16. 

"The pets in our homes much be cared for. Name some things 
you might do to care for them." "Yes, we must feed thetn.'''' 
(Write the word on the board.) "Now can we show Kitty and 
Rover that we love them?" "Mr. Chalk is going to talk to some 
of you and tell you two things to do." (Play feed Kitty and 
Rover.) 

Lucy, feed Kitty. 

Harry, feed Rover. 

Harry, feed Kitty. 

Lucy, feed Rover. 

"Find the word jeedP Another leaf may now be added to the 
chart on which are many sentences containing the new words and 
the old ones needed in the drill. 

Lesson 17. 

"This morning, children, you may tell me some things you 
like to do. Maybe we can do some of them right here in the 
school room. If not, possibly we can do them at recess. Think 
of the things we have said we can do and tell me what you 
like to do." 

I like to jump. 

I like to run. 

I like to hop. 

I like to sing. 

The teacher should write these sentences on the board as they 
are given. Have each child read what he said. "What is it 



61 

Nellie likes, John?" "What is it Harry likes, Lucy?" The re- 
sponse will be : 

Nellie likes to jump. 

Harry likes to run. 

Holding up a card on which is written likes to jurnp^ the teacher 
may say, "That is what was said of Nellie. What is it?" "Find 
it on the board." Following this line, work with cards, with 
slips in the envelopes, and with the chart. The blackboard drill 
can be given on all new words and phrases. 

Lesson 18. 

Add a new leaf to the chart something like the following and 
have the children give it as dialogue: 

John: How do you do, Nellie? 

Nellie: How do you do, John? 

John: See Rover, Harry? 

Harry : I see Rover. Rover can jump. 

Lucy: Do you like to see Rover jump, John? 

John : I like to see Rover jump. 

Harry: Rover likes to jump. 

Nellie : Baby likes to see Rover jump. 

Lucy : See, see how Kitty can jump ! 

John: Kitty can sing. 

Harry: Kitty sings, "Mew-mew." 

By using a hektograph, each lesson after it is taught in the 
school room could be reproduced and each child given a copy 
of the sentences read that day. He could take it home and read 
it to his father and mother. These hektograph copies, if done 
on stiff paper, or light weight cardboard, can be preserved and 
by and by the child will have enough to make a booklet. 

Advantages of this Method. 
Among the obvious practical advantages of such a method as 
that described by Miss Russell are the following: 

1. The pupils begin to read at once and their interest is im- 
mediately secured. 

2. From the very first, reading is what it should be — thought- 
getting. 

3. Since the pupil gets the thought of the sentence as a whole 
and feels it clearly, the oral expression is easy and natural and 
he forms correct habits of oral reading. 



62 

4. He develops the power of seeing the sentence as a whole and 
so becomes a fluent reader. 

Learning to Write. 

The child usually comes to school with the natural impulse to 
write and draw. He should begin learning to write as soon 
as he begins learning to read. Writing is an end in itself and 
an effective means of making the word forms clearer and of 
quickening the ability of the child to detect differences and 
resemblances in words. The first writing of the pupil should 
be done at the blackboard with crayon. He is thus almost com- 
pelled to use the free-arm movement, upon which the teacher 
should insist. The writing at the seat should begin later, and 
the pupil should at first use only pencil and unruled paper. 
The writing should be large in order to secure freedom in arm 
movement. It is better for the beginner to use a large soft 
pencil as this prevents a cramped position of the fingers. Free- 
dom rather than accuracy should be the first aim of the teacher. 
Imitation is the chief factor in handwriting. The teacher 
should herself develop the clear round hand which she Avishes 
her pupils to learn. The script should be stripped of all flour- 
ishes and unnecessary strokes. The transition between this hand- 
writing and print is very easy. 

Drills to Secure Quickness and Accuracy in Recognition of 

Words. 

Class Work: — Give all the cards containing the names of the 
pupils to one pupil and let him give each to its owner. 

2. Hold up before the class the names of the objects on the 
desk and in the classroom and let the pupil reciting touch the 
object as the name appears. 

8. Arrange words as rungs on a ladder and see who can climb 
to the top and back without falling, that is, without missing a 
word. 

4. Arrange words as cross ties on a railroad trestle and see 
who can cross the trestle without help. If the pupil can not walk 
the ties alone, see who can help him. 

5. Have a number of words on the blackboard. A child may 
be teacher. He says: "I am thinking of 'pretty.' Erase it, 
Jane." If Jane erases the right word, she may be teacher, and 



63 

call on some other child to erase a word of which she is think- 
ing. In all drill work the main effort should be for quickness; 
both teacher and pupil should be alert. 

6. Hold up in succession manila cards containing all the words 
and sentences which the children have learned. Let the children 
read them rapidly. 

7. Place the manila cards on the blackboard ledge so that they 
may be readily seen by the class. They may then be collected 
by the class, as the teacher asks : "Who can find 'pretty,' 'good,' 
etc.?" 

8. Let a number of words be written on the blackboard. One 
child hides his eyes and another tips to the board and touches 
one of the words. Now the child opens his eyes and by reading 
the words tries to guess which word was touched. When the 
right word has been guessed the children all clap hands. 

9. Let one child stand with back to the blackboard, facing the 
class. The teacher writes a word on the blackboard where the 
class may see it. Now they begin to describe the word and the 
child at the board must guess what it is. Suppose the teacher 
writes "table." One child says, "It has four legs;" another "It 
is in this room;" another "It has flowers on it;" another "It has 
books on it" — now the child can guess "table." 

10. Have a mail box and give each child a letter (a sentence 
usually). After the children have read the letters silently, they 
read them aloud *to the class. 

Seat Work: — Prepare for each child an envelope containing 
two copies of each word written on strips of paper. Let the 
children match the words on top of the desk. This exercise will 
teach the children to observe words closely. They will soon learn 
to match even unfamiliar words. 

2. Have a box containing pictures of various objects — such as 
a top, a ball, a hat — also the written or printed words which 
name these pictures. Let the children place the picture on the 
top of the desk and place the corresponding word under it. 

3. Let the children take the words from their envelopes and 
make the sentences placed on board or chart by the teacher. 

4. On an ordinary shipping tag or other pieces of paper, write 
the names of various objects in the room. Give a pupil several 
of these tags and ask him to tie each to the proper object. 



64 

5. Let each pupil make for himself, at his seat, a chart like 
the class chart. Other writing exercises will, of course, suggest 
themselves to the teacher. 

6. Have a list of name words on the board — such as hat^ chair, 
hell, and let the children draw the object and place the drawing 
by the name of the object. 

Getting the Book. 

Several weeks of reading should be done before the Primer is 
placed in the hands of the pupil. He is not able to use the book 
at first, and if placed in his hands, it merely gets old and dirty. 
He should be able to read in script from the blackboard, the 
cards, or from the chart, the first fifteen pages of the adopted 
text before he is told to get the book. 

Making the Transition from Script to Print. 

After placing the book in the child's hand, the teacher's first 
task is to make the transition from script to print. If her writ- 
ing has been clear, round, and free from flourishes, this will 
not be difficult. She has already taught the first fifteen pages of 
reading matter from the blackboard, and has perhaps placed it 
in her chart. Beginning from the first, the page to be read 
should be duplicated in script on the blackboard or chart. The 
pupil should read the script and then compare it with the words 
in the book. After a few pages have been read in this way the 
print will offer no further difficulty. 

When the book is begun the teacher should continually 
emphasize the silent reading of the entire sentence before its 
oral reading is attempted. She can best secure this result by 
having the pupil read the sentence silently, then look up and 
tell the class what it says. She should discourage the habit of 
pointing at the words with the finger or pencil while reading 
them. 

Teaching the Recognition of New Words. 

In the beginning of reading the child learns the word as a 
whole. When he has mastered in this way a vocabulary suffi- 
ciently large to give him an idea of the meaning of reading, he 
should enter on the third step in his task — learning to recognize 
new words for himself. He has already noted resemblances in 



65 

the words which he has learned and is ready to analyze them 
into syllables and letters. The steps in this process are as follows: 

1. The teacher and class analyze familiar spoken words into 
their component sounds. This is done by pronouncing the words 
slowly and still more slowly till the individual sounds stand 
alone — thus, /an, f-a-n^ f — a — n. It is usually best at first to 
separate merely the sound of the initial letter from the word, 
as — /-ATI, m-an^ c-an^ h-all, h-at. The training of the pupil's ear 
in perceiving sound and in combining these sounds into words 
should receive attention at an early stage in the learning process. 
The teacher may speak short sentences in which a word or words 
are separated into sounds as: / see a f-an. The hoy has a h-at: 
The pupil should then repeat the sentence, pronouncing the word 
which was sounded in the ordinary manner, and then slowly 
as the teacher did. This exercise should be continued till the 
pupils recognize the sounded word with facility. The teacher 
should know thoroughly the sound of the letters in the English 
language, and should be able to make them correctly and dis- 
tinctly, in order to be able to do well this important part of her 
work. Haliburton's Phonics in Reading^ published by B. F, 
Johnson & Co., Richmond, Va., should be in the hands of every 
primary teacher. 

2. The second step is the analysis of the written words into 
parts corresponding to its sounds. The words should be written 
with the isolated sound separated from the rest by hyphens. 

3. The sound should then be firmly associated with the symbol. 
Interest may be aroused in the learning of sounds by associating 
with the letter whenever possible some natural sound with which 
the child is familiar. For example, /-/, is the sound made by 
an angry cat; r-r^ the growl of a dog; m-w, the lowing of a 
cow; t-t^ the tick of a watch; p-p, the sound of a light-puffing 
steam engine; ch-ch^ the puff of a loaded engine; n-n^ the sound 
of a circular saw cutting a log; s-s, the hiss of a hot iron plunged 
into water; A-A, the pant of a tired dog; h-h^ and hard (?, the 
cough of a child trying to get something out of its throat; g-g^ 
the sound of gargling; d-d^ the sound of a pigeon; h-h^ the 
bubble sound; sh-sh, driving the chickens away. 

This drill on the sounds of the letters should be alternated 
with the regular reading lesson till the sounds of all the con- 
sonants and the principal vowel sounds are familiar to the child. 
The letters may be written on cards and these held up in quick 

5— T. M. 



66 

succession before the class, who will give the sound of each as it 
appears. The teacher should be satisfied with nothing else than 
the exact sound by the pupil. Buh-ah-tuh is as far from the 
sounds of the letters in hat as bee-a-tee. She will find that this 
exercise is also of great service in correcting imperfections in 
speech which children frequently bring over from bobyhood. 

The teacher should also introduce word-building from the 
common phonograms or sound syllables which the children have 
learned, and should give them other syllables as the basis for 
new words. An^ at^ it^ all and old are good introductory phono- 
grams. An may be considered the surname of a large family 
of words. "How many members of this family can you name?" 
the teacher may ask. The first is c-an. D-an, f-an, m-an, n-an, 
p-an, r-an, t-an, v-an are the other members of this interesting 
family. The pupils should first separate the sound of the 
initial letter and then blend with the phonogram. When this 
work is once well begun the teacher and pupils will suggest and 
discover many other phonograms from which hundreds of words 
may be built. When a child finds a new word in his reading, he 
should be taught to sound it and discover its pronounciation for 
himself. In the English language there are many words which 
are not phonetic. Any system breaks down in the presense of 
such a combination of letters as though, cough, hough, enough. 
What must be said of them must be said of hundreds of other 
words: they must be learned by sight. 

The following Outline for Lessons in Phonics, prepared for 
the Oregon State Course of Study and submitted by the pub- 
lishers of the Wheeler Primer will be suggestive to South Caro- 
lina teachers. 



67 



OUTLIKE FOR LESSOXS IN PHONICS. 
By Clara Dinkle. 



Review. 


Teach 
Phonics. 


Pronounce. 


Write. 


Teach Stock Words. 




p. 7, m. 


my, man, 
mamma. 


man 


Mamma, loves, baby 


m. 


p. 8, s. 


see, sing, sit. 


see 


can, I, see 


m, s. 


p. 10, 1, 


like, little, 
love, 


love 


little, is, a kitty 


m, 8, 1, 


p. 11, f. 


fat, feed, 
four, five. 


fat 


you, like, feed, Rover 


m, 8, 1, i. 


p. 12, d. 


do, doll, dog, 


dog 


dog 


m, 8, 1, f, d, 


p. 13, b, 


Baby, Bell, 
big. 


big 


Bell, me, am 


m, 8, 1, f, d, b, 


p. 14, t. 


two, too, to, 
touch, 


two 


one, two, three, four, five 



in, s, 1, f, d, b, t, p. 15, g. 


get, girl, 
good, big. 


get 


apples, my, big 


m, s, 1. f, d, b, t, 


p. 16, r. 


Rover, run, 
rabbit. 


run 


0, do, the rabbit 


m, 8, 1, f, d, b, t, 


p. 19, fr. 


Frank, Fred, 
free. 


free 


Fred, Ruth, doll, have 


m, 8, 1, f, d, b, t, 
g. r, fr. 


p. 21, n. 


no, not, net, 
in, 


no 


not, has, shoe 


m, s, 1, f, d, b, t. 


p, 23, bl. 


black, blue, 
blow. 


blue ' 


black, and, white. 


m, 8, 1, t, d, b. t, 
g, r, fr, n, bl. 


P, 25, j, g. 


Jack, Jill, , i ^., J . 
Gyp, Jill 


Gyp, too, says, Edith, 


m, 8, 1, f, d, b, t, 
e, r, fr, n, bl, j, 
g. 


p. 26, br. 


brother, bring, 
broom. 


bring 


brother, it, chicken. 


m, 8, 1, f, d, b, t, 
g, r, fr, n, bl, j, 
g. br. 


p. 28, w. 


want, will, | .,, 
wait, William,! ^^" 

1 


boy, want, this, cherries 


m, 8, 1, f, d, b, t, 
g, r, fr, n, bl, j, 
g. br, \v. 


p. 29, p, 


pig. papa, i 
pony, ^ ^ 


pig, to, papa, good. 


B, 1, f, d, b, t, g, 
r, fr, n, bl, j, g, 
br, w, p. 


p. 31, pr. 


pretty, print, 
price. 


pretty 


bird, nest, pretty, they. 


1, f, d, b, t, g, r, 
fr, n, bl, j, g, 
br, w, p, pr. 


p. 34, y. 


yet, yes, you. 


yet 


puppy, puppies, yes, ' 


f, d, b, t, g, fr, 
n, bl, i. g, br, 
w, p, pr, y. 


p. 35, gr. 


grandpa, 
grand, grow. 


grand 


Harold, pony, grandpa, birth- 
day. 


f, d, b, t, g, r, fr. 
n, bl, j, g, br, 
w, p, pr, y, fr. 


p. 37, c. 


cat, can, 
come, 


cat 


cat, she, gave, him. 


f, d, b, t, g, r, fr. 
n. bl, j, g, br, 
w, p, pr, y, gr, 
c. 


p. 38, k. 


kind, kitty, 
look. 


look 


run, rat, look, no 



68 



OUTLINE FOR LESSONS IN PHONICS— Continued. 
By Clara Dinkle. 



Review. 


Teach 
Phonics. 


Pronounce. Write. 


Teach Stock Words. 


d, b, t, g, r, fr 
n, bl, j, g, br 
w, p, pr, y, gr 
c, k. 


P- 40, h. 


he, his, 
Harold, 


his 


cow, calf, milk, his 


d, b, t, g, r, fr 
n, bl, j, g, br 


p. 42, 8, 


dogs, dolls, 
boy8, birds, 


dogs 


girl 


w, p, pr, y, gr 
c, k, h. 


p. 43, th. 


Ruth, E.liih, 


Ruth 
plum 


with, we, going, go, ride, 


p. 45, pi, 


please, plum, 
play. 


Kate, say, please 


b, t, g, r, fr, n, 
bl, j, g, br, w, 
P. pr, y, gr, c, 
k, h, s, th, 


(breath) 








b. t, g, r, y, fr, 
n, bl, j, g, br, 
w, p, pr, y, gr, 
c, k, h, 8, pi, 
th, (br.) 


p. 47, V, 


dove, love, 
have, 


dove 


box, dove, in, for 


t, g, r, y, fr, n, 
bl, j, g, br, w, 
P. pr, y, gr, c, 
k, h. 8, pi, V, 
th, (br.) 


P, 49, qu, 


quiet, quick, 
squirrel, 


quiet 


acorn, squirrel, will, wait 


t. g, r, y, fr, n, 
bl, j, g, br, w, 
P. pr, y, gr, c, 
k, h, s, pi, V, 
qu, th, (br.) 


p. 53, th, 
(voice) 


this, that, 
they. 


that 


that, must, sing, catch 


g, r, y, fr, n, bl. 
j, g, br, w, p, 
Pr, y, gr, c, 
k, h, 8, pi, V, 
qu, th, (breath) 
th, (voice). 


p. 55, ch. 


chicken, cher- 
ries, catch. 


catch 


play, make, what, now 


g, r, fr, n, bl, j. 
g, br, w, p, pr, 
y. gr. c, k, 
h, 8, pi, V, 
qu, th, (breath) 
th, (voice), ch, 


p. 59, cl. 


cluck, clock, 
close. 


close 


hen, cluck, breakfast, on 


r, fr, n, bl, j, g. 
br, w, p, pr, y. 
gr, c, k, h, 8, 
pi, v, qu, th. 
(breath), th, 
(voice), ch, cl. 


p. 63, s. 


buzz, rides. 


biizz 


boat, water, Willie, if, your. 



69 

Learning the Names or the Letters. 

Learning the names of the letters need give the teacher no con- 
cern. The children will learn them long before they are nedeed. 
It does no harm to call attention incidentally to the names of 
the letters early in the course, provided this does not take the 
place of the other and more important work which we have de- 
scribed. After work in Phonics is well under way, boxes of let- 
ters should be given to the children and they should build words 
with them. At the beginning of the second year they will need to 
use the letters in oral spelling. 

Assigned Work in the Course or Study. 

Teachers will note from outline of course of study found on 
page 28 that we have provided for the "First Grade" and the 
"Advanced First Grade." A teacher in a country school with 
a six months' term should not attempt more than the "First 
Grade" during the child's first school term. If she has a set of 
supplementary Primers in the library, she may use these to 
give variety to her work. In the long term school the teacher 
may take up the work of the "Advanced First Grade" during the 
first school year. 

The pupil should not begin his First Eeader until he can read 
the Primer fluently. Much damage is done in South Carolina 
by attempting too rapid progress and giving to children books 
for which they are not prepared. 

Reading in the Higher Grades. 

The limitations of this manual will not permit a detailed appli- 
cation of the principles already stated to the reading of the grades 
above the first. The principal aims which should govern the 
teacher remain constant throughout the entire course. 

Habits Which a Teacher Should Aim to Develop in Her 

Pupils.. 

1. The habit of self-help in the learning of new words by the 
use of phonics. The teacher should never pronounce a word 
to the pupil if he can be led to arrive at the pronunciation for 
himself. 

2. The habit of taking in a number of words at a glance. 



70 

3. The habit of reading in a natural conversational tone. 

4. The habit of getting the thought before attempting to read 
orally. 

5. The habit of visualizing clearly the picture suggested by the 
reading. 

6. The habit of passing judgment as to the truth or beauty of 
what is read. 

7. Right habits of using the dictionary. This should include: 

a. Rapidity in finding words. 

b. Discrimination in finding the right meaning. 

c. The use of the key and the determination of the correct pro- 
nunciation. 

8. The development of literary appreciation and discrimina- 
tion. 

More and more should be expected of the pupil as he advances 
through the grades. In Book F, "Heart of Oak Readers," and 
in the "Selections from the Riverside Literature Series," to be 
used in the Sixth and Seventh Grades, we find several selections 
which demand for full enjoyment the development of consid- 
erable literary appreciation. A profitable study of such poems 
as "The Passing of Arthur," "Sir Galahad," "Chevy Chase," 
"Scots Wha' Hae' Wi' Wallace Bled," "Ballad of the East and 
West," and "To a Waterfowl" demand special preparation and 
effort by the teacher as well as by the class. The study of such a 
selection should include: 

1. An understanding of the setting of the poem. 

2. An explanation of the unfamiliar words and the poetic 
expressions. 

3. The pronunciation of the archaic words which may be found 
in the selection. 

4. The study of the imagery of the poem. 

5. The appreciation of the esthetic and ethical beauty of the 
poem. 

6. A vocal interpretation of the selection by the teacher and 
the class. This last point can not be too strongly stressed. Poetry 
is intended to be read aloud. A good vocal interpretation by 
the teacher who understands and appreciates it thoroughly, is 
worth pages of labored explanation of its meaning. 



71 

A Suggested Study of Bryant's "To a Waterfowl," Heart of 
Oak Books, Number V. 

In assigning this poem for class study, the teacher may give 
the following directions : "After you have read this poem, care- 
fully answer the following questions:" 

1. What incident perhaps suggested this poem to Mr. Bryant? 

2. What words in the poem would you not find in prose? 

3. What is the meaning of the following words in their con- 
text: plashy, marge, solitary, chafed, illimitable, abyss? 

4. AVhat words in the poem suggest loneliness? 

5. If you were an artist and were making an illustrated edition 
of the poem, what pictures would you paint for each stanza? 

6. What likeness does the poet find between himself and the 
waterfowl? 

7. How does the waterfowl strengthen the faith of the poet? 
With these questions the pupils will come to the recitation 

with certain definite ideas in mind. In the course of the dis- 
cussion many other questions will suggest themselves, as — why 
should the poet select the evening sky as a setting for his bird of 
passage? Why did he address a solitary bird and not a flock 
of migrating geese? Let the pupils try substituting their own 
words for those used by the poet and note the effect on the mean- 
ing and beauty of the poem. 

Lastly, the teacher and pupils should read the whole poem 
aloud, observing the differences in effect as it is read by various 
members of the class, letting the class decide who gave the best 
interpretation of the author's meaning. This poem is well worth 
memorizing by the class. 

Helpful Books for Teachers of Reading. 

Arnold — Reading and TIow to Teach It. Silver, Burdett &> 
Company. $1.00. 

Kyt\o\<1— Learning to Read. Silver, Burdett & Co., $0.36 
Haliburton — Phonies in Reading. B. F. Johnson & Co. 
Qhwhh—The Teaching of English. The MacMillan Co. 
Welch — Literature in School. Silver, Burdett & Company. 

LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

"The power to understand rightly and to use critically the 
mother tongue, is the flower of all education." — Pres. Eliot. 



72 

In every day life the ordinary child talks to express to others 
the thoughts and feelings which crowd upon him as he meets 
with his varied experiences, each full of compelling interest. 
His words and sentences may be disconnected, his language full 
of slang, vulgarisms, and incorrect English of all varieties, but 
he usually speaks with spontaneity and effectiveness. To be 
sure, we occasionally find children who have been brought up 
without companions and who, consequently, talk very little. The 
only cure for this state of affairs is free association with others 
in work and play. To bring spontaneous speech to the lips of 
children, the teacher must rely on their natural impulses as they 
come in contact with others in the midst of surroundings which 
appeal to their interests. To stimulate speech, the teacher must 
first stimulate thought. If her work has become a lifeless rou- 
tine, her pupils will have little use for language; but if it is 
based on their experiences and appeals to their interests, if it 
opens their eyes outdoors to see the beautiful and the wonderful 
in nature, if in the school room it discloses to their imagination 
the world of myth and legend and story, they will talk almost 
without knowing it. Having once secured the freedom of 
expression which comes when the child has something to tell, the 
teacher's task is to direct the impulse so as to secure continuity 
of thought, correctness of speech, and the ability to write with 
force and facility. 

Resources of the Teacher in Language Training. 

1. The Power of the Teacher's Example. 

Teachers often do not realize the wonderful influence of their 
own example on the speech of their pupils. This influence is all 
the more potent because it is unconsciously exerted. I once 
visited a school taught by a teacher who had been a pupil of 
one of the South's great teachers, Dr. W. H. Payne, formerly 
President of Peabody College. As I observed the work, I noticed 
that practically the whole class used a certain gesture of the 
hands in reciting. When the teacher began the explanation of a 
difficult point, he used the same gesture. I immediately recog- 
nized it as the characteristic mode of emphasis used by Dr. 
Payne in my college days. When I mentioned my observation 
to the teacher and the class I found that not one of them was 
aware of the gesture. I afterwards told the story to Dr. Payne 



73 

and he was likewise in ignorance of the fact that he used any 
characteristic gesture whatever. The little movement, however, 
had been unconsciously transmitted to the third generation of 
pupils. The more significant habits and modes of thought of the 
teacher are more surely and even more unconsciously transmitted. 
The whole class will copy the handwriting of a favorite teacher, 
and the tendency to adopt her modes of oral expression is even 
stronger. Last year I visited a certain rural school in South 
Carolina. I arrived at recess and mingled with the teachers and 
the pupils in the freedom of the playground. I was at once 
struck by the slang which characterized the speech of the pupils 
and was at a loss to account for it until I met one of the teachers, 
a bright young college graduate, who used slang in every sen- 
tence and seemingly unconsciously. 

Any one who attempts to acquire a speaking knowledge of a 
foreign language will soon learn that this consists largely in 
learning, bodily, connected phrases and idiomatic expressions of 
the language and of combining and re-combining these expres- 
sions to meet the need of the moment. The same thing is true 
in the learning of our own language. The phrases and sen- 
tences learned at home and in school form the units of speech 
for the child. The teacher's own contribution should be the 
richest and best which she can possibly make it. 

2. The Story. 

One of the necessary qualifications of a good primary teacher 
is the ability to tell a good story. Most children are hungry for 
stories. These develop the expanding imagination and furnish 
a fund of thought and a store of phrase and sentence units of 
expression and give, in the re-telling, an admirable exercise for 
language training. 

The first stories told the children should abound in repetition 
and should be based on familiar ideas. At first the pupils will 
not be able to re-tell the whole story, but assisted by the teacher, 
one pupil will tell one paragraph, and another, another, until the 
most timid child has acquired confidence and can make his con- 
tribution. If the child makes a mistake in grammar in the 
progress of the story, he should be quietly corrected at the time 
by the teacher unless she feels that the interruption would do 
more harm than the neglect of the error. The story in its oral 
and written form, both reproduction and original, should con- 
tinue to form a part of the language work, even through the 



74 

high school. A period should be set aside occasionally for jokes 
and short, humorous stories. The development and healthy 
direction of a sense of humor in teacher and pupil is a very 
necessary part of a liberal education. The teacher should have 
as a regular part of her equipment, books containing stories 
adapted to the various grades of her school. She should read 
Bryant's Telling Stoines to Children and Wyche's Some Great 
Stories and Flow to Tell Them. 

3. Conversation. 

In every-day life conversation constitutes at least ninety per 
cent, of spoken language. It is the basis of all social inter- 
course. Not only should the art of conversation be cultivated for 
its own sake, but it is one of the surest means of reaching the other 
desirable ends in language training. The language period should 
frequently be a conversation period in which pupils and teacher 
talk freely about the things in which they are interested. 

The material for conversation will naturally be found in the 
studies and activities of the school. Perhaps the most fruitful 
source is the nature study. The mockingbird's nest in the yard, 
the germinating seed, the growing plants in the school garden, 
the development of the mosquito in the gauze-covered jar on the 
teacher's desk, the growing caterpillar, the butterfly bursting from 
the cocoon, are all intrinsically interesting and call forth many 
observations and comments from the children. The study of pic- 
tures found in the Readers or purchased for this purpose, offers 
an opportunity for conversation lessons. It also contributes to 
the development of the power to enjoy good pictures. 

Lessons in health and sanitation, and in morals and manners, 
may best be developed in the course of conversation in which 
the pupils take an active part. Little is accomplished by set 
talks or little sermons on these subjects. 

In higher grades, these conversation lessons will naturally 
expand into the more formal "oral com.position" and into the 
school debate. 

4. The correction of errors in speech. 

In every community the teacher will find certain prevalent 
errors in speech, both in grammar and pronunciation. The use 
of these faulty expressions has become second nature to the 
children and they use them unconsciously. The first step in their 
elimination is to make the pupil conscious of his errors and of 
the correct forms. If he says "aint," "Have went," "I seen him 



75 

yesterday," "between you and I," "you'ns," "Can James and me 
go for a bucket of water," or "I taken my book home," the thing 
for the teacher to do is politely and unobtrusively to call his 
attention to his error when it is made and then teach him the 
correct expression. With the older pupils, the grammatical rea- 
sons may be pointed out. The teacher should note carefully the 
speech of her pupils; she should make a list of the current errors 
and endeavor, one at a time, to correct them. The favorite 
teacher of my boyhood posted a list of the worst errors on the 
board and eA^ery day called on her pupils to tell which they had 
heard during the day. In an impersonal way, she thus brought 
the errors strongly into consciousness. This is the first step in 
the correction. The other is to secure the use of the correct form 
so frequently that it becomes habitual and the speaker is assured 
against a relapse into the error in moments of excitement. 

5. Memory work. 

Childhood is the seed time of the memory. In all grades of 
the elementary schools the memorizing of choice selections of 
prose and poetry should form a regular part of the school work. 
These will abide as a source of pleasure and will help set a 
standard of pure and beautiful English. The recitation of these 
poems and prose selections, at intervals, will furnish an excellent 
drill in oral reading and will be a source of entertainment to 
pupils and visitors. The following are suggested as suitable 
poems for memorizing. The teachers can add to the list indefi- 
nitely. 

Selections for Memorizing. 

Grades I-III. 
"Mother Gopse Rhymes." 
"Twinkle, Twinkle', Little Star." 
"Look Up and Not Down," Hale. 
"All Things Bright and Beautiful," Alexander. 
"By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee" — Hiawatha's Cradle, Long- 
fellow. 

"The Year's at the Spring," Browning. 

"Wynken, Blynken and Nod," Field. 

"Little Boy Blue," Field. 

"I Have a Little Shadow," Stevenson. 

"^Vhere Did You Come From, Baby, Dear?" McDonald. 

"Hang Up the Baby's Stocking," Miller. 

"Suppose, My Little Lady," Cary. 



76 

Grades IV and V. 

"The Children's Hour," Longfellow. 

"The Villiage Blacksmith," Longfellow. 

"I Shot an Arrow in the Air," Longfellow. 

"Woodman, Spare That Tree," Morris. 

"The Barefoot Boy," Whittier. 

"The Brook," Tennyson. 

"He Prayeth Best Who Loveth Best," Coleridge. 

"The Song of Marion's Men," Bryant. 

Grades VI and VII. 

"Aboil Ben Adhem," Hunt. 

"The Star Spangled Banner," Key. 

"By the Rude Bridge that Arched the Flood," Emerson. 

"Ode," Timrod. 

"Spring," Timrod. 

"Annabel Lee," Poe. 

"The Sword of Robert Lee," Ryan. 

"Little Giffen," Ticknor. 

"To a Water Fowl," Bryant. 

"The Chambered Nautilus," Holmes. 

"The American Flag," Drake. 

"When Earth's Last Picture is Painted," Kipling. 

"Ring Out, Wild Bells, to the Wild Slry," Tennyson. 

"Breathes There a Man With Soul So Dead," Scott. 

"A Cry to Arms," Timrod. 

"Carolina," Timrod. 

The following selections from the Bible should ^be memorized 
by all grades: 

The Ten Commandments. Exodus XX:1-18. 

Psalm I; Ps. XIX: 1-6; Ps. XXIII; Ps. XXIV; Ps. XL VI: 
Ps. XCV:l-7; Proverbs 1:7-9; Proverbs III;11-18; Ecclesiastes 
XII; Isaiah LV:1-13; Job XXVIII :12-28 : Matt. V:3-9; Matt. 
VI:9-13. 

All pupils in the school should become thoroughly familiar 
with Snyder's Selections from the Old Testament, or Moulton's 
Bible Stories from the Old Testament. As a part of the opening 
exercise, the pupil should learn several of the best hymns in the 
English language. 



77 

Teaching the Writing of English. 

1. Copying. 

The pupil normally finds his first training in the correct 
writing of his language through copying sentences in his writing 
exercises, or in the seat work assigned in reading. In this way, 
he learns easily the use of capital letters, periods, and question 
marks. Even in the third grade it is a profitable exercise to have 
the pupil copy in his best writing a selected paragraph from his 
reader. Nothing less than his very best work should be accepted. 
The pupil should read the sentence carefully, close his book and 
make his copy. He should then open his book and see if his copy 
is in exact agreement with the original in words, spelling, and 
punctuation. This exercise trains him in self-criticism and is a 
preparation for dictation, the next step in his training. 

2. Dictation. 

An exercise in dictation is as simple as it is valuable. A para- 
graph selected from the Reader, or some other text-book, should 
be read, a sentence at a time, by the teacher or a pupil assistant. 
The pupil should make a copy in his best handwriting, then 
open the book from which the selection was taken, make a careful 
comparison, and correct his errors in spelling and punctuation. 
In this way, he learns to connect the written expression with the 
oral and puts on his paper the punctuation already indicated by 
the voice in reading. 

3. Letters. 

Letter writing forms the larger part of our written English. 
After learning to write, one of the proudest moments of a child's 
life is when he writes a letter to some relative or friend. The 
teacher should utilize this impulse of the pupil for teaching him 
to write simple letters in correct form. It will add zest and 
interest to the exercise if the letters written in school are actually 
sent through the mail. 

4. Written Reproduction of Stones. 

In the third grade, the pupil should begin to reproduce in 
writing some of the stories he tells best orally. This exercise 
should not be made burdensome. One or two stories every month 
will be sufficient. 

5. Composition Writing. 

In selecting the subjects for more formal compositions, the 
teacher should choose those which relate directly to the pupil's 
tastes and interests. He should write because "he has something 



78 

to say," and not because "he has to say something." In the cor- 
rection of the composition the teacher should emphasize one 
thing at a time. If the class has some difficulty in recognizing 
the begining and the end of a sentence, and strings out expres- 
sions separated by commas, or "ands," she should for a time 
neglect other mistakes in composition and address herself to this 
one task till the error is corrected and the pupil habitually divides 
his paragraphs into sentences, and begins each with a capital and 
closes it with the proper punctuation. She may then attack 
another class of errors. Part III of the Kinard-Withers Lan- 
guage Book, Number Two, contains an admirable treatment of 
the subject of composition writing. This section should not be 
postponed until the rest of the grammar has been finished, but 
should be spread over the entire two years devoted to the book. 

The Use of the Text-Books. 

In the fourth grade the pupils should begin the study of the 
Withers-Kinard Language Book. The teacher should read care- 
fully the introduction to this book, which contains suggestions 
covering the main points to be considered in the teaching. The 
lessons as outlined are so definite that they need little explana- 
tion or amplification to insure a correct presentation. At the 
request of the author of this manual, Miss Sarah Withers has 
submitted the following lessons to illustrate methods of treat- 
ment: 

Lesson I. Part I. 

The picture, "Feeding Her Birds," should be studied in class 
before it is assigned for home study. The teacher should let 
the children talk about the picture freely, telling what they 
see in it and like about it. She may tell the children a little 
about Millet — that he was a peasant boy himself who became a 
great artist and painted scenes he knew and loved so well. Any 
other interesting facts about his life may be told, and the lesson 
may then be assigned for home study. The next day the ques- 
tion in the books (and others prepared by the teacher) may be 
answered. The teacher may ask: 

Which child is the oldest? The youngest? Whose turn will 
come next? How do you know? (Some children, when asked 
this question, have had different opinions, but most of them 
agree that the little child on the mother's right will be served 



79 

next, because of the eager, expectant look on her face. Opin- 
ions should be given freely and each child's approved or cor- 
rected.) Where did the hen come from? Who may be work- 
ing out there? Some child may tell the story the picture sug- 
gests to him, following an outline the teacher puts on the board. 
The teacher should get the outline from the children, having 
them to tell what they should tell about first, next, etc. The fol- 
lowing outline is suggestive : 

The house — of what made, the roof, the vines. 

The people who live in the house, how many and who they are 
and what they are called. 

The time of day ; what they are doing now. 

The child should begin somewhat in this way: "In this pic- 
ture there is a small house made of stone. It has a thatched roof, 
and vines are growing over it. I think it is a pretty home." 

Lesson II. Part I. 

When the teacher has finished Lesson I, she should take a few 
minutes to prepare for Lesson II. The month probably will 
be September. If it is, the teacher may say, "What month is 
this, children?" "What are some of the beautiful flowers and 
grasses to be found in September?" "Helen Hunt Jackson loved 
the beautiful September days, and she was always glad to see 
the flowers and grasses which are the signs or 'tokens' that Sep- 
tember has come. She wrote a poem called 'September.' I shall 
read it to you." If the month should be August, the teacher 
may ask, "What month is this?" "What month comes next?" 
"What beautiful flowers do we have in September?" She may 
then go on with the lesson as indicated in the preceding para- 
graph. After reading the poem (and it should be read well) 
the teacher may ask one or two questions and then assign the poem 
to be studied and memorized. 

The next day the questions in the book should be answered in 
class, and the poem recited by different children. 

Lesson III. Part I. 

Some child may read the rhyme aloud, and the teacher may 
call upon different children to go to the board and make a 
list of the names of the days of the week, one child writing 
one name, another the next, etc. The rule "All names of the 



80 

days of the week begin with capital letters" may be written on 
the board and then copied by each child. If the teacher does not 
have the children keep a note-book, the rule may be written 
in a conspicuous place on the board or on a chart. The selection 
to be written from memory may then be assigned as home work. 
It should be written from memory the next day in class. The 
children should be held responsible for each capital and each 
mark of punctuation. 

Lesson XIII. Part I. * 

This lesson may be supplemented (and interesting seat work 
provided) by teaching the children to look in their readers for 
six words of one syllable, six of two, six of three, etc. These 
words should be arranged in columns, all words of one syllable 
in one column, all of two syllables in another column, etc. 

Lesson XIX. Part I. 

This lesson should be studied in class, to be sure that the chil- 
dren know the opposite of each word. The written exercise 
should then be assigned for home work. The next day the chil- 
dren may read aloud the sentences they have brought in. After 
discussion of these, the teacher should spend a few minutes pre- 
paring for Lesson XX, as indicated in Lesson III, 

Lesson LVI and LX. Part I. 

Lessons like these should be supplemented by the teacher. 
After lessons have been studied, the teacher should put sentences 
on the board in which know or no is to be supplied, as: 

I my lesson today. 

I have exercise to bring in. 

Do you who this boy is? 

I do not him. 

Letter Writing. 

The teacher should put a model form on the board and dis- 
cuss with the children where each part of the letter should be put. 



81 

Exercises. 

In some cases it would be well for every child to do all the 
work suggested, as on pages 49, 65, and 158. In Lesson 4, page 
50, however, the children may choose the exercise they wish to 
bring in. Some will choose one, some another, and the next 
day's lesson will be more interesting because of the variety. A 
wise teacher may sometimes omit some exercise. It may not be 
suited to her particular pupils or to that particular time. 

Suggestions on the Use or "The English Language" Book II. 

Do not attempt to take the book rapidly. Each subject needs 
a great deal of drill w^ork. Correlate the grammar and the 
reading wherever possible. While the class is studying chapter 
I in the grammar, it will perhaps be reading the "Greek F'olk 
Stories" in the "Selected Literature for the Sixth Grade." Have 
the class make many statements about Pan, Midas, Apollo, Phae- 
ton, Vulcan, and the other characters of the story. In some way 
have them ask questions about the story. 

Ask pupils to make statements about the country they are 
studying in Geography, or the president whose administration 
they are studying in History. Have them write sentences illus- 
trating the various kinds. Also have them examine and classify 
the sentences in the story they are reading. 

Nouns. 

Do not attempt to teach the chapter on nouns and pronouns. 
Chapter II, in one lesson. Take nouns for one lesson. Have the 
children, for proper nouns, name all the characters in the story 
they are reading. Have them name the chief towns in their 
State. Also give them names of States and great cities in their 
own country and some great cities of the world as spelling les- 
sons. For common nouns, have them name all objects in the 
room, objects in their dining rooms or sitting rooms at home; 
all the things needed to make a dress, bread, a chicken house ; all 
the things used in baseball, football, or tennis. 

Pronouns. 

Use numbers of sentences with blanks for the pronouns. Con- 
trive to bring in special drill in use of "I" and "me." Point out 

6— T. M. 



82 

pronouns in history lesson and in the stoi-y they are reading and 
tell what each stands for. 

Adjectives. 

Give several days' drill on adjectives. Let pupils find words 
that describe the nouns in the story they are reading. Ask 
questions to bring out sentences containing words showing "how 
many" and "how much." Write sentences on board with all 
kinds of adjectives. Let them find all the adjectives, tell what 
they modify and whether they tell "what kind," "how much," 
or "how many." Give them again drill in different kinds of 
sentences, telling them to underline nouns, pronouns and 



adjectives. 



Verbs. 



Drill for two weeks at least on verbs and give review drills 
on all the other parts of speech. Give drills calling attention 
to words that have many uses, such as "well" as noun, verb, 
adjective, and adverb. You will find that verb phrases will 
require more careful drill. Take sentences from history, 
geography, and literature. Let pupils classify them, pointing 
out the nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs. In all work 
on sentences have the children point out the word the sentence 
is about and let them find the principal word which tells some- 
thing of that word, thus preparing the way for understanding 
subject and predicate. 

Adverbs. 

Give a great deal of drill on kinds of adverbs according to 
meaning. Have many sentences on the board. Always ask first 
about the word which the adverb modifies, then ask the pupils to 
tell what part of speech it is, then develop the function of its 
modifier, the adverb. Drill on prepositions, conjunctions, and 
interjections. On every grammar day for weeks, five or six sen- 
tences should be written on the board and the children should 
learn to recognize all the parts of speech which they have 
studied. 

Chapters III, IV, and V will require at least three months. 
Drills in analysis of simple sentences, and in the recognition 



of parts of speech should be given daily. It is a good idea to put 
into these sentences facts in history and geography that you 
would like to impress. Before you assign a lesson in chapter 
III, drill the children in recognition of subject and predicate in 
sentences as simple as "Birds fly." In same way take direct and 
indirect object, and subjective complement. You should drill 
on these parts of the sentence some time before taking any others. 
Pupils will find it hard to recognize transitive and intransitive 
verbs. Lead them to see that a verb is transitive or intransitive 
as it is used in a special sentence and not in itself. 

Don't touch the complex sentence until the analysis of the 
simple sentence has been mastered. Give constant drill in 
expansion of words and phrases into clauses. In adjective clauses 
get them to give clauses introduced by who^ which and that. 

In adverbial clauses, ask for clauses beginning with "when," 
"because," "if," etc. Drill on these some time before you take 
up noun clauses, and when sentences are given have the children 
pick out all parts of the sentence and tell what part of speech 
each word is. 

The compound sentence will not need so much drill. 
A good exercise for children is the combination of short sen- 
tences into one complex or compound sentence. Select some well 
written sentence from their reading and break it up into a 
number of short statements, and then have these combined into 
the best sentence the pupils can form. Try to show them the 
value of the complex sentence in expressing thought more 
accurately. 

The teacher will -find that the first five chapters are all that 
can he done thoroughly in a six months'' school term^ or even in a 
nine months'' term. 

With all the drill that has gone before, chapters VI, VII, and 
VIII, can be taken more rapidly. Be careful to use abundant 
illustrations. In the study of plurals, emphasize by using forms 
in spelling lessons. In same way pronouns and adjectives may 
be taken up rapidly. 

The chapter on "Verbs" must be taken slowly. Drill thor- 
oughly on person, number, and tense before teaching infinitives. 
Have pupils give the conjugation forms for dozens of verbs, 
selecting especially verbs like comes, lie, lay, sit, set, see, do, which 
they are liable to use carelessly. 



84 

The class will need especial drill on subjunctive mode, and 
on infinitives and participles. We should take especial care that 
they learn to use the different forms of the verbs correctly and 
should drill constantly on use of "shall" and "will," "may" and 
"can," and the past tense of verbs which are frequently con- 
fused. 

The chapter on the analysis of sentences should merely sum- 
marize a work which the teacher has continued from the begin- 
ning of the book, A system of diagraming is of great assistance 
to the teacher in the assignment of work, furnishes a graphic 
method of showing the relation of the parts of the sentence and 
greatly aids the comprehension of most pupils. Some simple 
system should be adopted. That given in the Reed & Kellogg 
"Higher Lessons in English" is recommended by the author of 
this manual, and this book should be in the hands of the 
teachers. 

Helpful Books for Teachers. 

McMurry — Special Method in Language — Macmillan. 70c. 
Dr. Reed Smith — Participle and Infinitive in -ing. Free on 
request addressed to University of S. C. 

SPELLING. 

English is not a phonetic language and until the commendable 
efforts towards simplification have progressed much farther we 
must continue to spend much time and energy in teaching our 
pupils how to spell. 

A brief examination of the practical uses of spelling will give 
us the key to the principles underlying the methods of teaching 
the subject. When do we need to spell words? Invariably when 
we wish to write them. What words do we need to spell ? Words 
whose meanings we know and which we desire to use in the 
expression of some thought. In practical life we rarely need to 
know how to spell a word whose meaning is unknown. It would 
be unsafe to attempt to use such a word. 

It is a safe general maxim which bids us do the thing in prepa- 
ration as we expect to do it in practice. 

These facts suggest to us some working principles as the basis- 
of our method in spelling. 



85 

Written Spelling. 

Written spelling should be given half the periods assigned 
to this subject. Written spelling not only coincides with every- 
day practice, but it is the best method to fix the form of the word 
in the memory. The visual memory of the written word is more 
vivid and more lasting than the auditory memory utilized in oral 
spelling, and the muscular act of writing fixes still further the 
sequence of the letters. When we are in doubt as to the spelling 
of a word, we frequently write it to see how it looks. Moreover, 
in the written recitation the individual pupil spells all the words, 
and not merely those which come to him in his turn. 

Oral Spelling. 

While written spelling should form the basis of our drill in this 
subject, oral spelling holds excellent claims to alternation in the 
program. 

1. Oral spelling is more quickly given and saves time in the 
crowded program. 

2. It is easier for the teacher to arrange and introduce spelling- 
matches and other stimulating incentives in oral recitations than 
in written. 

3. Whil6 the child spells only a few words during the course of 
the oral recitation, he hears each word pronounced several times, 
and it is as important for him to get the correct pronunciation as 
the correct spelling. 

4. With oral spelling it is easy to drill in the syllabication of 
words. As the word is spelled the pupil should pause moment- 
arily for each syllable, as — heau-ti-ful. 

On the whole, then, spelling should include : 

1. The written spelling of assigned lists of words. 

2. The written spelling from dictation of connected para- 
graphs. 

3. Oral spelling of Avord lists. This is excellent for the review 
of lists covered first by the written method, and should be con- 
ducted once a week. 

General Suggestions. 

1 . The spelling of the first grade will naturally be limited to the 
reading and phonic exercises. Every time a child writes a word 
he is learning to spell it, for the sounding of the letters composing 
it naturally calls attention to their sequence. 



86 

2. When the regular spelling book is placed in the hands of the 
class the teacher should continue to select words from the reader 
and other subjects for supplementary spelling lessons. If these 
subjects are correctly taught, the child will learn the meaning of 
the words and they will become a part of his using vocabulary. 
He should then certainly know how to spell them. 

3. In the lower classes only a few words, not more than ten, 
should be assigned each day. These should be learned perfectly. 
As the pupils progress the lesson should be lengthened, but should 
always be short enough to make perfect preparation possible. We 
are seeking to establish the habit of correct spelling. This will 
not be done by assigning a long list of words to be missed. 

4. Special note should be made by the teacher and pupils of 
words missed in the spelling lesson. These should be reviewed 
frequently. It is almost impossible to misspell some words. The 
teacher should distinguish between these and the words commonly 
misspelled. Especially difficult words should be written on the 
blackboard and observed carefully. A difficult word usually has 
only one or two danger points, for instance, there is only one 
thing to be studied in each of the words, sep-a-rate, cu;?board, 
develo/? and shep-Z^erd. The dictionary should not be used as a 
spelling book. When this is done the pupil spends a great part 
of his time studying words which he knows already, and another 
large part of it studying words which he will never need to 
know. 

5. As Professor Hand so well says: "English spelling is not 
a matter of rule, but there are at least three rules of spelling 
which ought to be mastered by the pupil before he reaches the 
high school. These are : 

" '(1) Words ending in silent e, drop e when a suffix beginning 
with a vowel is added. 

'"(2) Monosyllables and other words accented on the last 
syllable, ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, 
double the final consonant before a suffix beginning with a vowel. 

"'(3) Words ending in y preceded by a consonant, change y 
to i M'hen a suffix not beginning with i is added.' " 

6. The teacher should insist that written spelling be done in a 
good legible hand. 

7. The teacher should remember that the one good reason for 
having a pupil spell a word is that he may use it some time. 
Teach the meaning of the words spelled and let pupils use them 
'" sentences. 



87 

Devices for Arousing Interest in Spelling. 

1. Eevive the old-fashioned "Spelling Bee." It will be a 
source of entertainment and profit for the whole community. 

2. Develop a winning team for the County Field Day exercises. 
This will mean a succession of preliminary matches in the school 
itself to determine the school team. 

3. Have a written test or match in spelling at the close of each 
school month. Post the school and individual class standings and 
see how these can be raised by the end of the year. 

4. Make the pupils see clearly that while ignorance in many 
subjects may be concealed, inability to spell will always appear 
in our letters and will betray us at the critical moment. 

Suggestions for Using Thomas' Blanks for Written Spelling. 

(Adopted for optional use by the State Board of Education.) 
Let the teacher dictate the words and the pupils write them in 
the first and third columns, numbered consecutively from 1 to 30. 
Dictated Avords are not to be written in the middle column, which 
is reserved for corrections. As soon as the words are written by 
the pupils, the teacher examines the blanks or has the pupils 
exchange blanks and the error mark (x) is placed before each 
misspelled word. The number of errors is placed in figures at 
the bottom of the middle column. The pupils then write cor- 
rectly the misspelled words on the same lines in the middle 
column, looking them up and copying them from their spelling 
books. The teacher should see that the pupils themselves write 
correctly in the middle column the words which have been mis- 
spelled in the first and third columns. The teacher herself 
should not make the correction. If she does so the educational 
value of the exercise is partially lost. When pupils have once 
written a word in the first or third columns they should not be 
allowed to change it, as an erasure will tend to make them care- 
less and will deface the blank. The blanks should be kept by the 
teacher in the school room as a permanent record of the work 
done by each pupil. An excellent review of difficult words may 
be obtained by occasionally selecting for the oral spelling words 
which have been misspelled in preceding written lessons. The 
number of words dictated in a single lesson is left to the discretion 
of the teacher and should be regulated by the advancement of 
the pupils and the length of the recitation period. Children 



88 

should commence written spelling as soon as they can write legibly 
and continue it through their entire public school course. The 
blanks are adapted to any spelling book or dictionary. 

ARITHMETIC. 
General. Aims in Arithmetic Teaching. 

The chief elements in the task of the arithmetic teacher are: 

1. To develop in the child the fundamental number concepts 
by bringing him in touch with varied experiences involving 
number relations. 

2. To develop skill, accuracy, and quickness in handling num- 
ber symbols, that is, in what we usually term the fundamental 
operations. 

3. To furnish the pupil with such clear conceptions of business 
methods and operations that he may readily apply his arithmetic 
to problems arising in practical affairs. 

While each of these elements will find a place in every grade 
of the elementary school, it will be conceded that the work of 
the first two years will be concerned chiefly with the first element, 
the third, fourth, and fifth years with the second element, and 
the higher grades with the third. 

A pupil may become quite expert in the handling of figures 
and this knowledge may be almost useless because the symbols 
have for him no concrete basis or meaning. Arithmetic is to 
him a mere juggling of figures. I once saw a class which had 
for three weeks worked problems involving the Metric System. 
I asked the class to indicate on the blackboard the approximate 
length of a meter. The estimates varied to from three inches 
to the entire length of the room. They could manipulate the 
figures, but the understanding was absent. I suspect that the 
estimates of the length of a rod by some of the pupils studying 
Linear Measure in our classes would show almost as wide varia- 
tions. Try it. Let the larger pupils in your school estimate an 
ounce or a pound of sand and see how much they miss the true 
weight. We know, as far as words go, that sixteen ounces make 
a pound, but the government expert tells us that some scales 
may habitually sell us fourteen ounces for a pound and it does 
not occur to us to test the weight of our purchases. When your 
class begins to study Time Measure, have the pupils close they 
eyes, and as you hold your watch in hand before you, let them 



89 

indicate by raising their hands when they think a minute has 
passed. You will be surprised at the result. If you have not 
tried it, you will also be surprised at the accuracy a first grade 
will develop in estimating lengths when the pupils have been 
allowed to estimate and measure for a few weeks. These are 
the concrete things in arithmetic, and are normally the easy ones. 
We should continually test the foundations of our number w^ork 
to see if our pupils are thinking in concrete terms, or are merely 
juggling with words and figures. 

In the second stage, the development of abstract thought 
through concrete examples should be continued, but the principal 
work of the pupil must be directed to learning the tables and 
acquiring skill in the mechanical operations of addition, sub- 
traction, multiplication, and division applied to whole numbers 
and fractions. Oral analysis witl\ problems involving small 
numbers to secure clearness in thinking, and drills on the opera- 
tions to secure quickness and accuracy, should be the key-notes 
of the third, fourth, and fifth grades. It is no uncommon thing 
to see pupils working in Percentage and in the more advanced 
business applications of arithmetic when their work is made 
fruitless by their inability to add a column of figures, or make 
a correct multiplication or division without repeated and labori- 
ous effort. The period between the ages of nine and twelve 
should be drill time in the life of a boy or girl, and the teacher 
should see that speed and accuracy in the fundamental opera- 
tions become second nature to her pupils. 

The work of the sixth and seventh grades ought not to deal 
primarily with the mechanics of arithmetic. The mere arith- 
metical operations involved in Profit and Loss, Commission and 
Brokerage, Stocks and Bonds, and Insurance, are simple enough 
to one who has received the preparation indicated above. To 
develop an adequate conception of the nature of the business 
itself is here the prime necessity. It is absolutely necessary for 
the teacher to familiarize herself thoroughly with business 
methods in order to make her work in the business applications 
or arithmetic really effective. To organize the class into a joint 
stock company, under the laws of South Carolina, to hold a 
stockholders' meeting, elect directors, to elect officers of the 
company, issue certificates of stock, issue bonds, declare divi- 
dends, buy and sell stock, and conduct in imagination other 



90 

operations of a stock company will give meaning to a subject 
which otherwise would be only dead "Cguring." 

Concrete Material and Its Use. 

In the lower grades of the school it is necessary to have a 
variety of material for use in teaching numbers in order to give 
the concrete basis which we have decided is necessary to a 
thorough understanding of principles. There is an abundance 
of such material in the reach of every teacher almost without 
cost. Any one can secure beans, corn, hickory nuts, pebbles, or 
acorns, A large box of tooth picks, a few dozen small rubber 
bands, and a thousand square inch tablets of cardboard will cost 
only a few cents. The sheets of cardboard necessary to cut 
the inch tablets need not cost over 25c., and any newspaper office 
will cut them for you. The needles of the long-leaf pine make 
excellent material for cutting into given lengths as seat work. 
A fcAv one-inch cubes, two-inch cubes, a few blocks of various 
dimensions, say 2"x2"x4'', 2"x3"x5", may be sawed at any lum- 
ber mill. These blocks are of great value in teaching volumes 
and may be used in many other ways. Hobb's "Number Sticks" 
are very useful. A box contains perhaps a thousand sticks of 
various lengths, from one inch to six inches. These may be used 
in teaching combinations and separation of numbers. They 
may be obtained from A. Flanagan & Co., Chicago, 111. The 
pupils, however, may make substitutes for them from pine 
needles, or other light material which may be easily cut into 
given lengths. Every school should be supplied with the pint, 
quart, and gallon liquid measure, and with the peck and half- 
bushel dry measures. Dry sand or sawdust may be used as 
material for measurement. It should also have a yard stick and 
enough cheap rulers so that each child may be provided with one. 
The rulers for small children should not show less than quarter- 
inch divisions. Every school should be provided with a cheap 
grocer's scale, or at least with a spring balance for determining 
weights. 

The actual handling of this material by the pupil will serve 
to give him a- vivid concej^tion of numbers and their relation. 

He can count all the material. He can play that the grains of 
corn are soldiers and can arrange them on the top of his desk 
and march them in twos, threes, fours, etc., as the teacher is 



91 

develoi^ing these numbers. The square inch tablets may be laid 
out on the pupil's desk to correspond with addition problems 
on the board, or may be made into rectangles to teach the multi- 
plication table objectively. A rectangle made up of three rows 
of square inch tablets, with five in each row, gives a lively con- 
ception of the fact that three fives are fifteen. The child who 
lays out the rectangle in this way will have no difficulty in 
ur^derstanding that a rectangle five inches long and three inches 
wide will contain fifteen square inches. The use of the measures 
is too evident to require explanation. Actually to measure quan- 
tities is the only way in which a true conception of numbers can 
be derived. When conducted with concrete material, this work 
is as simple as it is fundamental. 

The teacher of arithmetic can make good use of manila cards 
similar to those described under "Materials for Reading." On 
these cards may be placed the forty-five number combinations 
found on pages 10 and 11 of the Milne Arithmetic, First Book. 
As a quick drill these cards may be held up for a moment before 
the class and the sum given at a glance. For drill on the Multi- 
plication Table, the same cards may be used. 

If presented concretely, simple fractions are as easy to learn 
as simple whole numbers. If the pupil is allowed to cut a circle 
out of paper with a pair of scissors, fold it in the middle and 
cut it into two equal parts, half a circle is just as simple an idea 
as a whole circle. With paper circles, strips of paper to be folded 
into equal parts, or rectangles made up of the inch squares 
described above, much work involving simple fractions may be 
presented at an early period in the study of arithmetic. 

As soon as the child has learned to count, the decimal system 
of writing numbers may be effectively illustrated by tying tooth 
picks into bundles of 10, and these into bundles of 100. The 
operations of addition and substraction, involving carrying and 
so-called "borrowing," maj' be easily made simple by some such 
device as the following: . 

Two children, Mary and Susan, are called to the desk and 
Mary is given thirty-seven sticks and Susan forty-five. The 
sticks are arranged in bundles of 10 as far as it is possible, and 
it is understood that in the operation whenever 10 sticks get 
together, a band is to be placed around them. Mary and Susan 
are asked to give their sticks to Ellen. After receiving them, 
Ellen finds that she has seven bundles of 10 each, and 12 loose 



92 

sticks. She takes 10 of the latter, puts the band around them. 
She then has eight bundles and 2 loose sticks, or 82. The teacher 
then shows on the board the operation of adding 37 and 45. 

Now, suppose that Ellen wishes to give 45 sticks back to 
Susan. She must give her 5 sticks and 4 bundles. Since she 
has only 2 loose sticks, she must take the band from one of the 
bundles of 10 and give Susan 5 of the 12 loose sticks she will 
then have. After giving these and 4 bundles to Susan, she will 
have left 3 bundles and 7 sticks, or 37. 

When the teacher has accompanied this concrete work with 
the numerical operation on the board, the class will have a very 
definite idea of the process usually known as "borrowing." 

Suppose Susan wishes to divide 45 sticks equally among 
Henry, John, and James. Each boy holds out his hand; she 
gives one bundle to each. She then takes the band off the other 
bundle and divides the fifteen loose sticks among the three boys. 
If, at the same time, the teacher places the figures on the board 
and performs the operation of short division, the child will 
readily see the reason for the operation. In a similar manner 
multiplication may be illustrated concretely. 

Every teacher should make the following simple device for 
teaching decimal fractions and percentage: On a piece of card- 
board mark off a perfect square foot, divide the sides of the 
square into ten equal parts, and draw lines dividing the square 
into 100 smaller squares. In like manner, take one of the small 
corner squares, divide its sides into ten equal parts, and by lines 
divide it into 100 small squares. With the square foot thus 
divided we may show tenths, hundredths, thousandths, and ten- 
thousandths, and may illustrate the operations in decimal frac- 
tions. 

The adopted text-books contain many references to concrete 
material. This should be provided wherever possible. 

First Grade and Advanced First Grade. 

The work of these grades should include: 

1. Counting — 

The pupil should count the number of children in his class, 
the number of desks in a row, the number of desks in the school- 
house, a pile of sticks given him by the teacher, piles of corn, 
beans, or pebbles, until he can count accurately to 100. He should 
be taught to count his bundles of sticks or pine needles into tens. 



93 

and to place a rubber band about each, and to count to 100 by 
tens. 

2. Comparison — 

He should be taught to compare lengths and areas. The 
teacher should draw on the board eight or ten lines of different 
lengths, and should ask such a series of questions as this : Which 
is the longest line? Which is the shortest line? How many 
lines are shorter than this one? How many are longer? Or 
she may draw on the board a number of circles of different 
sizes, and should ask concerning them questions such as these: 
Which is the largest circle? Which is the smallest circle? How 
many circles are smaller than this one? How many are larger? 

3. Measurements — 

The pupil should be taught to use the foot rule in measuring 
lengths in the class room. After he has acquired some idea of 
measurements he should be taught to estimate lengths with his 
eyes and then test his accuracy by actual measurement. In this 
way he should estimate and measure the length of the black- 
board, the width of the door, the height of the window, etc. He 
should be asked to stand one foot, two feet, or four feet from the 
wall, and should then measure to ascertain how correctly he has 
guessed the distance. Using the foot rule, with its inch divisions, 
the pupil should be taught to cut pine needles into one-inch 
lengths, two-inch lengths, five-inch lengths, etc. With the pint 
and quart cups he should be taught to measure a quantity of sand 
or sawdust. He should be allowed to measure a bucket of water 
and find out how many pints it contains, and how many quarts. 
He should determine how many pints make a quart, how many 
pints make a gallon, how many quarts make a gallon. The 
teacher should make some little sand bags weighing one ounce, 
two ounces, four ounces, six ounces, and one pound, and should 
have the children compare tliese weights with other weights. 

4. Writing Numbers — 

During the first year the pupils should be taught to write num- 
bers to 100 and should learn to read the Roman numerals to X. 

5. Simple Oral Problems — 

With this work should be combined exercises in combinations 
of numbers with the sticks, or the pine needles. A one-inch stick 
should be placed at the end of a two-inch stick and the added 
length determined. A two-inch stick and a five-inch stick should 
in the same manner be placed together and the length deter- 



94 

mined. In a concrete manner the teacher may thus determine 
the principal facts of addition and subtraction involving small 
numbers. Pupils should learn to solve simple problems, such as : 
"If Mary has three apples and Sarah has two, how many apples 
have both?" "If John has five apples and gives Mary two, how 
many has he left?" "How many apples must I have in order to 
give Mary, Sarah, and John two apples each?" They will show 
a natural interest in problems involving small purchases and the 
making of change. 

The Text Books. 

Milne's Progressive Arithmetics have been adopted for use in 
the schools of South Carolina. The teacher will find the assigned 
work for each grade in the course of study on page 28 of this 
Manual. The First Book is to be placed in the hands of the pupil 
in the second grade. The text books are well graded and are con- 
structed on a very definite plan. The teacher who accomplislies 
the work as outlined in the order of the books will not go far 
astray. 

Follow Logical Order or Presentation. 

In the presentation of a subject the teacher should be guided 
by the natural order of difficulty. The following are suggested 
as logical steps in presentation: 

Addition — 

1. Concrete work to develop the meaning of addition. 

2. The learning of the 45 combinations known as the addition 
table, so that the sight of any two digits for addition immediately 
suggests their sum. 

3. The addition at sight of a number of two digits and a num- 
ber of one digit, such as 34 plus 5, or 34 plus 8. Make this 
concrete with the bundles of tooth picks as already described. 

4. The addition of two numbers of two digits each, involving 
carrying. Illustrate concretely by the bundles of sticks. 

5. The addition of columns of one digit numbers. 

6. The addition of two or more columns. 

7. Drill to secure speed and accuracy. 
Subtraction — 

1. The subtraction table. This should be learned as the reverse 
process of the addition table, and the two should be taken 
together. 



95 

2. The subtraction of numbers in which each digit of the sub- 
trahend is less than the digit of the same order in minuend, as 
521 from 834. 

3. The subtraction of numbers in which certain digits of the 
subtrahend are larger than the corresponding digits of the minu- 
end. This process should be illustrated concretely by operations 
with bundles of sticks. 

Multiplication — 

1. The development concretely of the meaning of multiplica- 
tion by the arrangement of the rectangle of tablets as previously 
mentioned, or by some other device. 

2. The learning of the multiplication table, so that the sight of 
any two digits for multiplication will immediately suggest their 
product. 

3. The multiplication of a number by a digit when no product 
is greater than nine. 

4. The multiplication of a number by a digit when one or more 
products are greater than nine. 

This may be illustrated by the use of the bundles of sticks. 
Suppose 34 is to be multiplied by 4 ; 34 sticks make three bundles 
of 10 each and 4 loose sticks. To multiply 34 by 4 means to take 
the number 4 times. Four groups each containing 3 bundles and 
4 sticks are laid out on the top of the desk. When the pupil puts 
the loose sticks together, he takes 10 of the 16 and ties them into 
one bundle. He places this bundle with the other bundles of ten. 
He then has 13 bundles of ten. He takes 10 of these, ties a string 
around them, and makes a bundle of 100. The operation with the 
sticks should accompany the work at the board. 

5. Multiply by 10, 100, 1,000. 

6. Multiply by any number. The pupil will readily see that to 
multiply by 324 means to multiply by 300, by 20, and by 4, and 
add the results. 

7. The teacher should make it clear at every step that the 
multiplier must be an abstract number. It simply shows how 
many times we take the multiplicand. Let him see clearly that 
there is no such thing as multiplying $5.00 by $5.00. 

Division — 

1. The learning of the division table, which is the converse of 
the multiplication table and which should be taught at the same 
time. 

2. The development of the two ideas in division — 



96 

(a) 15-^3, may mean "How many 3's in 15," or 

(b) It may mean "What is one-third of 15?" 

The teacher may have 15 marbles on the desk. She may ask: 
"To how many boys can I give 3 marbles each? She picks up 
three at a time and gives them to five boys in succession. There 
are five 3's in 15. She may ask, "If I divide the 15 marbles among 
three boys, how many will each get?" The easy way to do this 
is for the boys to hold out their hands while the teacher gives the 
marbles around one at a time till they are all distributed. Each 
boy will get five marbles. One-third of 15 is 5. In the first case 
the pupil will say "You can give them to as many boys as there 
are 3's in 15, or five boys." In the second case he will say, "Each 
boy will receive one-third of the 15 marbles, or 5 marbles." The 
teacher should drill on simple problems till these two meanings 
of division are perfectly definite. 

3. The division of any number by a digit. The sticks may here 
be brought into use as previously described under "Concrete 
Material and Its Uses." 

4. The division by any number, viz., long division. 

(a) The first step in long division is to work a problem in 
short division with which the pupil is already familiar by the 
arrangement used in long division. 

(b) Use as divisors numbers consisting of a digit and one or 
more ciphers, as 40, 300. 

(c) Use divisor in which the digits after the first are small, 
such as 41, 302, 511. 

(d) Gradually increase the complexity of the divisor and 
teach the pupil to approximate the digits of the dividend. 

Fractions — 

1. Have abundant concrete work in cutting and folding slips 
of paper, circles, etc., to develop a definite idea of the meaning of 
fractions. One-fourth of a foot is just as easily understood as a 
foot if the child sees the object and works with it. The teacher 
should take foot strips of cardboard and divide them into halves, 
thirds, fourths, fifths, eighths and twelfths and should label each 
division. The pupil should be given these test measures and 
blank strips of paper which he should cut into foot lengths and 
on which he should mark the sub-divisions. By actual applica- 
tion of the strips to the test lengths he should answer such ques- 
tions as these: In one half a foot how many fourths of a foot? 
One-fourth equals how many eighths? One-half equals how 



97 

many eighths ? If you cut one-third of a foot from one-half of a 
foot, what length will you have? Add one-half of a foot and 
one-quarter of a foot. How many fourths of a foot in a foot and 
a half? With such exercises the fractions 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc., 
become units which he uses in measuring. All introductory work 
should be concrete and oral, and should be gradually introduced 
from the second grade. In this way he should learn the equiva- 
lents of all fractions whose denominators are not greater than 12, 
and should be able to add and subtract these fractions. 

2. He should then be taught the written form of the operation 
as a basis for work with larger denominators. 

3. From the concrete oral work should be developed the three 
principles of operation in fractions : 

a. A fraction may be multiplied by multiplying the numer- 
ator, or by dividing the denominator. 

b. A fraction may be divided by dividing the numerator or 
by multiplying the denominator. 

c. Multiplying or dividing both terms by the same number 
changes the form but does not alter the value. 

He should also know the process of reduction to lower term, 
of reduction to a common denominator, addition and subtraction. 

4. The teacher should insist on neat and compact arrangement 
of all written work. In adding and subtracting mixed numbers, 
teachers sometimes make the mistake of allowing them to be 
reduced to improper fractions. Only the fractional parts should 
be reduced to a common denominator. 

5. In multiplication of fractions, when the multiplier is a 
whole number, it is best to read x as times, as 4x4/5 will be 
read, 4 times 4/5. When the multiplier is a fraction, it is best 
to read x as of. 2/3x12 should be read, 2/3 of 12. Multiplication 
will offer no special difficulty to the teacher who has developed 
orally the three principles previously mentioned. 

6. The division of fractions by an integer is merely an appli- 
cation of one of the principles and offers no difficulty, but division 
by a fraction requires considerable analysis. It may be devel- 
oped by a series of questions somewhat like the following : "How 
many fifths in 1?" "Five fifths?" Let us put the question in 
another way; "How many times is 1/5 contained in 1?" "5 
times." "Since 2/5 is twice as much as 1/5, how many times 
would 2/5 be contained in 1?" "Evidently just 1/2 of 5 times, or 
5/2 times." "How many times would 3/5 be contained in 1?" 

7— T. M. 



98 

"1/3 or 5 times, or 5/3 times." When we compare the divisor 
1/5, 2/5, 3/5, with the quotient 5, 5/2, and 5/3 we see that the 
fractions inverted shows how many times it is contained in 1. 
"If 2/5 is contained in one 5/2 times, how many times would it 
be contained in 2?" "Evidently twice 5/2 times." "How many 
times in 4?" "4 times 5/2 times." "In 2/3?" "It would be 
contained 2/3 of 5/2 times." We may then state the general rule 
for division of fractions, "Invert the divisor to find how many 
times the fraction is contained in 1 and proceed as in multiplica- 
tion." 

7. There are three forms of analysis upon which most prob- 
lems in fractions and percentage are based. The problems 
involving these analyses may be stated as follows : 

a. Find 2/3 of 15. 

b. 3 is what part of 5 ? 

c. If 2/3 of a yard of cloth cost 12c., what will a yard cost? 

It is the third form which usually gives trouble. A graphic 
representation will usually make it clear. Draw on the board 
a line a yard long to represent a yard of cloth. "Since we have 
given the price of 2/3 of the yard, it is necessary to divide our 
line into thirds. In the problem we have given the price of two 
of those thirds as 12c., what would one of them cost? If one 
third-of-a-3^ard cost 6c., what will three thirds-of-a-yard cost? 
The secret of success in this analysis is in directing the attention 
of the pupil away from the yard as a unit and to the third-of-a- 
yard. 

Oral and Mental Arithmetic. 

In the first three years of arithmetic, oral work largely pre- 
dominates and at no time should it be neglected. Usually the 
arithmetic period should open with a brief "setting up exercise" 
in quick oral work. Every new subject should be introduced 
with a set of illustrative oral exercises involving small numbers. 
The pupils should be taught to solve his problems without paper 
or pencil whenever numbers are small. The teacher should drill 
in oral analysis until the typical forms of analyses have become 
second nature to the pupils. In the solving of problems involv- 
ing larger numbers, an oral analj^sis should frequently precede 
the written work. After the pupils have mastered the principles, 
the teacher should give them short methods of arriving at 
results. 



99 

Practical Application of Arithmetic. 

The final test of arithmetic teaching is the pupil's ability to 
apply his knowledge to the problems which arise in practical life. 
Arithmetical principles are universal, but in their application 
there is an infinite variety, dependent on the particular indus- 
tries of a community. No book can be specific as to the particular 
needs of every community. To make this special adaptation is 
the work of the teacher. It should he her endeavor to gather a 
special set of problems based on the needs of the community in 
which she is teaching, and thus to a certain extent, break the 
shock of entrance into practical business, which is frequently so 
embarrassing to the school graduate who attempts to apply his 
school arithmetic. If she teaches in town, she can easily obtain 
from business men lists of problems which will illustrate the 
arithmetic which they use in every-day practice. The Charles- 
ton Consolidated Eailway, Gas & Electric Company once fur- 
nished the author of this Manual with a complete set of illus- 
trative problems, beginning with the checking of the conductor's 
cash register, including the reading of gas and electric meters, 
the making of bills, the calculation of discounts, making the pay 
roll, and ending with the monthly balance sheet of receipts and 
expenses for the various divisions of the corporation. Such a set 
of problems would illustrate arithmetical principles just as well 
as any found in the book, and in addition would be immediately 
applicable to the business involved. 

The country teacher especially has an opportunity to make 
her work concrete and practical. 

1. She should have her class in mensuration cut a pole a rod 
long, and with it they should lay off a piece of ground ten rods 
wide and sixteen rods long, and should thus obtain a definite 
idea of an acre. They should measure the school yard and esti- 
mate its area in acres, the amount of fence necessary to enclose it, 
and the cost of the same. 

2. Let them measure off a twenty-acre field in various shapes 
and estimate the cost of fencing. 

3. With a given length, let them estimate the width necessary 
to a prize acre of corn, or one-tenth of an acre of tomatoes. 

4. Plave them estimate the yield of an acre of corn by counting 
the ears for ten feet on an average row, reckoning 140 ears to the 
bushel. Teach the boys to keep an account of the cost of labor 



100 

and of fertilizer used on the prize acre, and estimate the total 
profit and profit per bushel. 

5, Let them solve such problems as this: If an acre of cotton 
has four-foot rows, and a plant containing fifty bolls could be 
raised every three feet in a row, how much seed cotton could be 
grown upon an acre? How much lint? 

6. Let pupils measure the school room and find its capacity 
and its inside surface. If proper hygiene requires that every 
pupil have 600 cubic feet of air space, how many pupils should 
be placed in the room? Find what it would cost to paper or 
plaster the room and to carpet the floof. 

Teachers in countrj^ schools should give special attention to the 
problems in farm arithmetic which will be inserted as an appendix 
to the Second Book of Milne's Arithmetic. 

A Few Miscellaneous Suggestions. 

1. The teacher should not attempt to go too rapidly, but should 
treat each subject thoroughly. Much of the poor work which 
we see in our arithmetic arises from the fact that the pupil has 
never learned anything thoroughly enough to feel sure of his 
ground. His work is to him a constant drudgery from which 
he derives neither pleasure nor profit. 

2. It does little good to have the pupil repeat the multiplica- 
tion or division table in order. The numbers never come in this 
order in practical problems. Emphasize rather the rapid drills 
described on pages 44 and 105 of the first book. 

3. Emphasize time tests, such as those given on pages 155 and 
193 of the first book. Let the pupil see that he can improve in 
speed and accuracy. Make the exercise simple at first, and 
increase the difficulty as the pupil improves. Do not let him 
become discouraged. Require a neat, compact arrangement of all 
written work. 

4. Emphasize quick oral drill with small numbers, such as, 
5 plus 9, divided by 2, add 15, add 3, divide by 5, multiply by 7, 
how many ? 

5. One of the most valuable kinds of training which the teacher 
can give is in approximating answers and applying common 
sense to results. I once saw a pupil who was working a problem 
which involved the cost of a turkey. The answer he obtained 
was $36.50 and he announced the result with due form and 



101 

solemnity. Common sense should have told him that this price 
was a little high for turkeys. He had mistaken the position of 
the decimal point. 

On page 181 of the first book, there is a written exercise con- 
sisting of problems involving division. Let the pupils read the 
problems carefully and answer such questions as these : 

Problem 1 — Is the answer more or less than $0.25? 

Problem 2 — Did it cost more or less than $0.50 ? 

Problem 3 — Guess quickly at the cost. 

Problem 7— Is the answer more or less than 100? 

6. Do not assign home work in arithmetic till you have given 
such instruction as will enable the puj^il to do it without assist- 
ance from parents or other relatives. The parents should not be 
expected to teach the child. When the parent does the work, the 
pupil secures from it the same kind of benefit which a proposed 
athlete would derive from standing in the gymnasium and watch- 
ing another swing the clubs or punch the bag. 

Helpful Books for Teachers of Arithmetic. 

Hall, Arithinetic Primer. 

Dunton, AHthmetic in Primary Schools. Silver, Burdett & 
Co. $1.00. 

McMurry, Special Methods m Anthmetie. MacMillan Co. 
70c. 

HISTORY. 

Leonard T. Baker, Professor of Pedagogy University of South 

Carolina. 

General Aims. 

The course of study in history for the elementary schools 
divides into three stages: (1) For Grades I, II, III, and IV, a 
course in story telling, conversations, and selected readings; for 
Grades V and VI, a series of biographies so grouped chrono- 
logically as to present a continuous historical narrative of United 
States History, as given in White's "Beginners' Histoiy of the 
United States," and of the history of South Carolina, in White's 
"Making of South Carolina;" (3) for Grade VII, a more formal 
and systematic study of national history, with Thompson's "His- 
tory of the LTnited States" as the text. 



102 

A glance at the course reveals at once that the method of 
instruction, up to the seventh grade, must be almost entirely oral, 
and that to the teacher has been left the selection and adaptation 
of material. It follows, therefore, that successful work in these 
grades demands, as essential qualifications of the teacher, broad 
and thorough knowledge of the subject, and skill in the art of 
telling stories. Moreover it is essential that the teacher shall 
recognize the general aims of history teaching, and the specific 
value of each lesson given in realizing these aims. The intelligent 
teacher will bear in mind that it is not sufficient to entertain 
with stories chosen at random. Each selection must make some 
definite contribution to the child's stock of historical knowledge, 
and must vividly teach some moral or ethical truth. The ends to 
be sought here are both immediate and remote; immediate in 
effect on the child's moral and social sensibilities by making such 
appeal to emotions and such impress of ideas as will affect the 
child's character, and remote in storing the memory with masses 
of facts and incidents that later on may be organized and related 
when the formal and systematic study of history is undertaken. 
Other important aims of the primary history course are, the 
stimulation of the pupil's interest and enthusiasm, and the 
gradual development of power to gratify his increasing desire for 
knowledge through the mastery of books. 

The reason for the child's verdict, so familiar to teachers, "I 
hate history," is easily accounted for. Instruction in the subject 
is postponed until that stage in his school course when it is pre- 
sumed that he can read well enough to study, and then he is pre- 
sented with a so-called primary history, a condensed statement 
of dry facts with all the life and vital interest squeezed out and 
is directed to memorize this in small doses. The words without 
ideas soon fade away, and disgust for the subject remains. 

Though the great majority of children leave school before 
reaching the fifth grade, the course of study makes no provision 
for text-book study before that stage, because the nature and 
purposes of the subject and the needs and capabilities of the cliild 
point to direct oral instruction as the only means of realizing the 
true ends of teaching history to children in these grades. 

Without intention of encroaching on the liberty of selecting, 
arranging and presenting the subject matter thus wisely granted 
to primary teachers, the following suggestions are offered : 



103 

Suggestions for Primary Teachers. 

1. Celebrate Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and the birthdays 
of State and national heroes, including warriors, statesmen 
explorers, inventors, and philanthropists. The talks, stories, 
drawings, collection and study of pictures, simple and dramatic 
representations preparatory to and in connection with these cele- 
brations serve to apply th^ laws of association and interest, and 
therefore make vivid and indellible impressions. Miss Poulsson's 
book, "In the Child World," contains excellent suggestions of pro- 
grams for primary grades. 

2. In the first and second grades, use myths, legends, folklore, 
and stories of primitive life, mainly of the youth of great men 
and women, paying no attention to time and space relations which 
as yet have no value or meaning for children of these grades. 
"Somewhere" and "long ago" will serve to fix time and place. 

3. For children of the third and fourth grades, the teacher 
should plan a series of biographical stories selected from the 
pioneer history of our country, the legends found in Homer and 
Vergil, and the lives of Greek, Roman, and Teutonic heroes and 
sages. Certain Bible stories are also excellently adapted to these 
grades. At this age, heroic stories, especially those involving the 
encounter of dangers and the overcoming of obstacles, make 
deeper and more lasting impressions than at any other period in 
the child's life. In connection with these stories, let the pupils 
memorize songs and poems that embody or illustrate the historic 
facts. 

As the amount of appropriate material is vast, teachers are 
urged to estimate the number of subjects possible to use in a term, 
and to make sure that each one selected has its distinct and 
definite teaching aim. Not only should each selection present a 
fact really worth remembering, but also should teach a lesson in 
courage, self-sacrifice, patriotism, self-reliance, or perseverance. 
Do not crowd your pupils with stories. Save time for the repeti- 
tion of good stories. In making selections for the term's work, let 
quality rather than quantity have chief consideration. The course 
for these grades should comprise two lists, one of stories to be told 
or read to the children, and another for the children to read. The 
following books may be helpful in making up the course; for 
others see the librarj^ list : 

"Robinson Crusoe." 

"The Tree Dwellers," Dopp. 



104 

"The Early Cave Men," Dopp. 

"The Later Cave Men," Dopp. 

These four are named as offering an insight into primitive life. 

"Fifty Famous Stories Retold," Baldwin. 

"Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans," Eggleston. 

"Wandering Heroes," Price. 

"Ten Boys," Andrews. 

"Short Stories from English History," Blaisdell. 

"Stories from the Bible," Church. 

"How to Tell Stories to Children," Bryant. 

"Special Method in History," McMurry. 

"Course of Study for the Columbia City Schools." 

4. As in selecting, so in treating history stories, the capabilities 
and natural interests of the child should guide. At this age 
your pupil can not be interested in logical relations. The mem- 
ory and imagination are the agencies with which the teacher 
must work. If the story is presented simply, vividly, and 
dramatically, so that the childd's imagination is excited to the 
extent that he identifies himself with the hero, strong and lasting 
impressions will result. To be of value, each impression should 
have some concrete expression. This may be provided for in 
various exercises calling for memory and imagination, such as 
crude attempts to illustrate with drawings, acting the parts, and 
re-telling the story orally or in writing with the aid of outlines 
made by the teacher. In presenting the story, the teacher must 
aid the pupil's imagination with objective illustrations. For this 
purpose make blackboard drawings and sketches, clip pictures 
from books and magazines, and purchase the excellent and cheap 
historical pictures published by the Perry or Brown Companies. 
These helps enable the pupils to form clear conceptions of the 
dress, houses, manner of life, customs, and peculiarities of the 
people told about as nothing else can. 

This faculty of making vivid images of men, places, and 
events is not only immediately beneficial to the child, but also 
will be of inestimable value to him in his future study of history. 
Says Charles Eliot Norton, "The imagination is the supreme 
intellectual faculty, and yet it is of all, the one which receives 
least attention in our common systems of education. Upon its 
healthy development depend not only the sound exercise of the 
faculties of observation and judgment, but also the command 



105 

of the reason, the control of the will, and the quickening and 
growth of the moral sympathies." 

While memory and imagination should be most prominent at 
this stage, simple exercises in judgment should also find place. 
Lead your pupil by apt questions to make comparisons and infer- 
ences on the basis of his experiences and the facts remembered 
from previous stories. Give him problems, such as, what would 
you or some person known to you, do in a situation similar to 
that just narrated? Do not impose your own opinions upon the 
child. The end of training the child's judgment is most readily 
defeated by accustoming him to repeat only opinions from books 
or such as he infers are in the mind of his teacher. 

5. A beginning may be made in these grades of mastering 
history lessons from books. Assign simple selections from school 
readers and librarj^ books, and call occasionally' for oral or writ- 
ten reports to be made to the class. Whenever you excite or dis- 
cover a special interest on the part of a pupil in a given topic 
assist him to find additional reading on that subject. As an aid 
to finding suitable reading, just when it is needed, it would be 
helpful to prepare an index of literary and historical matter 
to be found in the readers used in the several grades, and of 
books in the school library. Keep this index posted in the class 
room. Here, too, a beginning may be made in training pupils to 
use the indexes of books. 

Suggestions for Grades V and VI. 

1. The text-book for the fifth grade presents continuously the 
story of the nation. Heretofore the pupils have dealt with the 
stories of events and individuals in a disconnected way. Now 
for the first time he will study the complete story of a people. 
It will be advantageous to the pupil to get this extensive view 
in a short space of time, and therefore it is recommended that 
the class be encouraged to read the book as a whole, as rapidly as 
possible, before proceeding to an intensive study of the several 
periods. Thus will be provided a broad frame work, in which 
to fit the details. Moreover this plan will enable the pupil to get 
an idea of the relation of each group of men and events to the 
whole. 

The lessons in the two texts for these grades continue the 
method of biography obtaining in the oral instruction of the 
primary grades, but now the relations of time and space should 



106 

begin to receive emphasis. From this time on, throughout the 
elementary school course, the effectiveness of instruction in his- 
tory involves fixing in close association men, events, time and 
place. Only dates, however, that mark off periods and those of 
very important events should be memorized. At this stage, and 
in all succeeding study of history, the teaching of each topic 
requires the use of historical maps and charts. Geography and 
history, to a certain extent, are one, and are best studied together. 
Historical instruction without the constant accompaniment of 
geography has no solid foundation, is all in the air. Association 
of space is as effective as that of time in memorizing history. 
Pupils should be trained to study each history lesson with the 
appropriate map open, and a wall map, or preferably one 
sketched on the board, should be in evidence at each recitation. 
In addition, pupils should make outline maps to be used for 
several profitable exercises such as tracing routes, indicating 
growth of territory by color, and for teaching other historical 
facts that may be shown graphically. 

2. At the end of each period take time for reviews. These 
may follow the method of comparing the men of each group 
with one another as to their motives and achievements. Also 
compare biographies and events given in the text with similar 
ones chosen from European history. Constantly call into play 
the child's store of historical knowledge gained in previous 
grades. For parallel study with biographies taken from South 
Carolina and national history, select for reading and discussion 
lives chosen from the numerous biographical histories of Euro- 
pean nations. Guerber's series, "Stories of the Greeks," "Stories 
of the Romans" and "Stories of the English" are excellent for 
this purpose. Some boys at this age can be interested in Plu- 
tarch's Lives. 

3. Do not make the study of history in these grades a hum- 
drum recitation of words from the book in answer to questions 
found at the end of each chapter. Recitations by the topical 
method produce the best results. Train pupils to make the out- 
lines. With these on the board, require the pupil to give the 
connected narrative of the whole or of one of the main divisions. 
Impress upon the child that he is to tell a story to his fellows. 
Invite additions to the story as given in the text. Follow these 
recitals with questions and free discussions. 



107 

4. In connection with the work based on "The Making of South 
Carolina" there is excellent opportunity to make history real by 
bringing out local connections, studying accessible monuments, 
pictures, and scenes of historical interest. The teacher should be 
well versed in the history of the locality in which he teaches as 
well as in that of his State. It is important in this study of 
South Carolina history to bring out the relation of the State 
to other sections. This may be done by frequent comparisons of 
men and events of our history with those of other States, and by 
emphasizing their influence on the current of national events. 

5. If you would command the attention of your pupils, their 
interest, and above all their confidence and respect, know more 
than is in text-books and, unless for reading, never appear before 
them with the text-book in hand. 

Suggestions for Grade VII. 

1. The text-books adopted, like all others commonly used in this 
grade, is an epitome of the history of the United States. Of 
necessity as many of the facts as possible are presented in a 
limited space. It is expected that the teacher will avoid the 
grave mistake of "just teaching through the book." He must 
determine what parts need emphasis and extensive treatment 
and what should be simph^ read or used for reference. The 
teacher must be prepared to supply from his own store of knowl- 
edge and other accessible sources the illustrative and vivifying 
details. As an aid to this necessary process of selection, McMurry 
recommends the examination of Judson's "Growth of the Amer- 
ican Nation," "As an attempt to leave out as many of the so- 
called important facts of our history as possible, in order to get 
the really important events and persons into striking profile 
before the eye." 

2. Suggestions here as to organizing and presenting the subject 
matter would be superfluous as those given in the appendix of 
Thompson's History, if studied and diligently followed by the 
teacher, will ensure effective teaching. There will be found prac- 
tical suggestions as to questioning, the use of topical analyses, 
sketch maps, review work, etc. The suggested parallel readings 
in history and literature given under each topic, and the refer- 
ences for teachers and pupils to source material and standard 
histories deserve the most careful attention and study of teachers 
who intend to use this book. 



108 

Debates and Current Events. 

The discussion of current events, and debates on historical 
questions are excellent means of supplementing the history course 
of this grade. These exercises give pupils the occasion for recall- 
ing and applying their knowledge of history, and thus it becomes 
a real and permanent possession. The preparation for debates 
will give training in the use of history texts and other works of 
reference. Lessons on current events will serve to establish the 
point of contact between the events of the present and what the 
pupils have been studying, and thus they will help young people 
to realize that history is continuous and alive, and that their 
own lives form part of it. These exercises afford excellent 
means of training in practical judgment, an aim second only in 
importance in the elementary schools to that of mastering the 
leading facts. Balancing opposing forces, comparisons, consid- 
eration of two sides of situations, arguing from probabilities, 
tracing present day events to their causes in the past, train the 
boy in that kind of reasoning for which he will have most con- 
stant need in life. Says Lecky, "History is one of the best schools 
for that kind of reasoning which is most useful in practical life." 

CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP. 

The final test of a school system in a democracy is the answer 
to the questions. Does it produce good citizens? Is the man who 
is the product of its training imbued with ideals of justice to all 
men, obedience to law, and fidelity to public trust ? Is he efficient 
as an individual and can he easily co-operate with others for the 
public good ? 

To insure the perpetuity and prosperity of a democracy, there 
must always be a safe majority of law abiding people who wish 
to do the just and righteous thing and this majority must have 
the will and ability to make its influence irresistible when the 
inevitable struggle comes with evil, graft, and lawlessness. 

Good citizenship is not, then, a mere matter of knowledge. It 
must include the ivill to act and the ability to act effectually when 
the need comes. When the State reckons its resources and its 
liabilities in citizenship, it must place on the debit side of the 
account not only the vicious man who deliberately wishes evil to 
organized society, not merely the man whose ignorance makes him 
the easy prey of the demagogue, but also the educated citizen 



109 

who knows what is right but who, through selfishness or indiffer- 
ence, fails to do his duty. 

In training for good citizenship the teacher must continually 
have three elements in view : 

1. The development of those virtues which all men recognize 
as fundamental in character, such as truthfulness, honesty, cour- 
age, fidelity, self-control, fortitude, self-reliance, co-operation, 
fair-play, and obedience to constituted authority. 

2. A knowledge of the fundamental facts concerning the gov- 
ernment of the city, the state and the nation. 

3. The development of initiative and aggressiveness, of leader- 
ship and co-operation in fighting for the right. 

In this training the school shares the responsibility with the 
home and with society in general. In the first element, especially, 
there will be marked differences among the pupils dependent 
upon the atmosphere of the home from which they come and the 
moral ideals which have prevailed in their environment. 

The teacher who is herself imbued with firm principles and 
strong moral convictions, will unconsciously impress these con- 
victions on her pupils. It is the testimony of his students that no 
man ever came into the presence of the late Dr. James H. Carlisle, 
President of Wofford College, without having his character lifted 
and strengthened. The teacher who possesses a strong, whole- 
some moral personality will unconsciously create a school atmo- 
sphere in which the best elements of character will grow. It may 
take time to dispel the gathered clouds, but the simshine will 
finally triumph. 

The play-ground has an important place in the development of 
the character elements in good citizenship. The play of the 
little child needs direction by the teacher, but as the pupils grow 
older the direction of their play should be placed more and more 
in their own hands. The spirit of the bully and the braggart 
should be frowned down. Cheating and unfairness should not be 
tolerated. A generous spirit of fair-play should be cultivated. 
The necessity of subordinating personal preferences to the will 
of the majority, develops unselfishness and self-control. The 
organization of the game and the "team work" necessary to suc- 
cess demands leadership and co-operation. The association of 
the pupils in the democracy of the play-ground develops self- 
reliance, courage, and truthfulness. A wise Englishman has said, 
"The battles of England are fought on the cricket fields of Eton 



110 

and Eugby." The teacher should enlist every good influence to 
create a school spirit opposed to dishonesty, lying, and littleness. 
For a century the honor system of the University of South Caro- 
lina has stood for the truth "No gentleman will cheat or lie." 
This traditional spirit of the University is its most valuable asset. 
In the games and contests of the play-ground, aim to develop 
generosity and courtesy to opponents. To struggle mightily for 
the victory, and to lose cheerfully are characteristics of the true 
sportsman. A well governed play-ground is a fine school for 
citizenship. 

The teacher will also aim to develop the character ideals of 
good citizenship by carefully selected stories in which these ideals 
are exemplified. The stories of Joseph and Daniel, the tales of 
the Greek heroes, the story of King Arthur, and the legends of 
chivalry, the life of Columbus, Washington, and Franklin, of 
Lee and Jackson, of Calhoun and Hampton, and other heroes of 
history in public and private life, will inspire the adolescent boy 
with higher ideals of fidelity, steadfastness, courage, self-reliance, 
and honor. 

Learning the Facts About Government. 

As children are able to understand, the teacher will gradually 
introduce them to the elementary facts of government. She will 
use the home and the school as examples of simple forms of gov- 
ernment. The pupil should learn that government does not exist 
merely because some people would do wrong, but because it is 
necessary for us all to work in harmony. If all pupils in school 
were perfectly good we should still need a program and definite 
ways of entering and leaving the classroom in order to save time 
and accomplish results. The government of the school itself 
should be such as to impress the child with a respect for authority. 
He should be taught to preserve the school house and its equip- 
ment and other public property from defacement and injury. 
The method of supporting the school, the building of public 
roads, the maintenance of the postofRce, and the carrying of the 
mails should be pointed out to him to illustrate facts of govern- 
ment. The school trustee and the County Superintendent of 
Education Avill visit the school, and these visits will furnish the 
occasion for introduction to public officers and their duties. The 
teacher should utilize the general interest in State and County 
elections to call attention to the names and duties of State and 
County officers. 



Ill 



The Text-Book. 



"Wallace's Civil Government of South Carolina" has been 
adopted by the State Board of Education for use in the seventh 
grade of the elementary schools. This subject should be given 
two recitations per week, The text-book very wisely begins 
with the school district as the unit most familiar to the child, 
and proceeds from this to the larger units. The teacher should, 
whenever possible, make the book work concrete by drawling 
her illustrations from the range of the pupil's knowledge. The 
forms and processes of law should be illustrated by moot court. 
The pupils might conduct an election for class officers in accord- 
ance with the machinery of State elections. The teacher should 
endeavor at every point to emphasize the responsibility of the 
voter as well as that of the officer in good government. 

Training in Organization for Public Service. 

The third element in the preparation for citizenship is the 
development of capacity for co-operation and leadership. Pupils 
should be taught how to organize a meeting and to conduct 
business in accordance with generally accepted usages. Some- 
times an audience filled with good intentions disbands without 
action because there is no one to organize the meeting for busi- 
ness. Frequently when a meeting does organize, the chairman 
does not loiow how to proceed promptly, the business drags out 
until everj^one is tired and goes home without action. The man 
with an "axe to grind" is frequently able to stampede a caucus 
or control a convention, simply because he has mastered the 
details of parliamentary proceedings. In a democracy every 
citizen should know how to organize a crowd into a deliberative 
body. The "annual school meeting" which prevails in many 
States is an admirable training in citizenship. 

The pupils should be encouraged to organize into a literary 
society or into a club for the improvement of the school grounds. 
By actual practice, they should learn how to "make motions," 
"second motions," "put the question," "introduce amendments," 
"take the vote," "make nominations," "conduct elections," "draw 
up the constitution and by-laws," and to conduct simple business 
in accordance with parliamentary practice. 

The minor duties of the school room should be placed in the 
hands of pupil committees and the teacher should encourage in 



112 

every way self-government by the pupils. In all this the 
teacher must, of course, have a guiding hand. It will be per- 
haps easier for her to rule as an absolute monarch, but this is 
not the best thing for a democratic citizenship. If we train 
children merely to follow the commands all their school life, 
need we be surprised if they follow the political "boss" after 
they leave school? They should be encouraged to organize and 
to work together for the common good. If they do not organize 
for good, the instincts of the adolescent boy and girl for organ- 
ization may lead them to organize against the teacher and the 
discipline of the school. 

Every school should have in its library a copy of Roberts' 
"Rules of Order" as a guide in parliamentary practice. The 
teacher should get from Clemson College a copy of a bulletin 
prepared by Prof. D. W. Daniel on "How to Organize and Con- 
duct a Debating Society." 

NATURE AND COMMUNITY STUDY. 

Definition. — 

We have already referred to the fact that each of us must 
interpret the spoken language which he hears, the books he reads, 
and indeed the entire physical and social world which surrounds 
us, in terms of his own experiences. We shall include under 
Nature and Community Study all deliberate attempts of the 
teacher to broaden the pupil's field of personal vision and to 
give him more exact and usable knowledge of life and its activities 
as a basis for these interpretations. It will include especially the 
elementary and fundamental observations and experiments which 
expand into geographj' and the natural sciences and which are 
utilized practically in agriculture. 

Method. — 

The very fact that this study deals with the special plant .and 
animal life, and with the social and industrial conditions of 
the individual community, renders it impossible in this Manual 
to plan definitely the work for any school. The occasion and 
direction of the lesson will be determined largely by the incident 
and interest of the moment. The art of the skilful teacher 
of Nature Study is to stimulate the observation of her pupils 
by suggestions and well directed questions, and to seize upon 
the phenomena or the discovery of the day to teach lessons which 



113 

can be gradually expanded to cover the whole field which she 
wishes to explore. She may have planned a lesson on caterpillars 
when a bluebird starts a nest in the house which has been 
built for him. If she is wise, she will postpone the lesson on 
caterpillars and will make the nest building the center of 
instruction as well as of interest. I once knew a teacher who 
had started a series of lessons on the ways in which plants 
propagate themselves. She had put a small sweet potato in the 
mouth of a glass jar filled with water and the class was observing 
the growth of the sprouts as typical of one mode of propagation. 
One day a pupil discovered some moving objects in the water in 
the jar. They were mosquito "wigglers." These at once became 
the center of absorbing interest. The potato was removed to 
another receptacle; the jar was covered with netting, and the 
class watched some of the larvaj develop into the pupa stage 
and finally come out as full grown mosquitoes. They took some 
kerosene, covered the surface of the water with it and noted its 
effect on the larvae as they came to the surface to breathe. They 
discovered the method of exterminating the mosquito, learned 
the office of the mosquito in carrjdng malaria and yellow fever, 
and finally organized an anti-mosquito club. It would have 
been a mistake for the teacher to neglect the subject of absorbing 
interest because it was not in her immediate plan. It would have 
also been a mistake to dismiss the mosquito with a superficial 
treatment. In the meantime the study in propagation continued 
without interruption. The school will frequently be conducting 
at the same time many studies in which the pupils are interested. 
This should not be regarded as a dissipation of energy. It is 
only in this way that the pupil may discover the inter-relations 
which constitute the unity of nature. 

Nature and Community Study should never be allowed to 
degenerate into a series of talks and lectures by the teacher. To 
perform its true function, it should consist mainly of suggestions 
and directions by the teacher, observations and activities by the 
pupils, and conversations to summarize results. 

The teacher should use to the fullest extent the exploring and 
collecting instincts of the child. The individual collections of the 
pupils may be gathered into a school museum which, in the 
main, should be made over each year. The collection of signifi- 
cant material under the impulse of a lively interest, and not the 

8— T. M. 



114 

mere possession of dead curiosities, should be the motive of the 
school museum. 

The work does not require a long period on the daily program. 
Much of it will come incidentally in the teaching of the other 
school subjects. If properly conducted, it will make an excellent 
"waking up" topic for the opening exercise. As soon as they 
arrive at the school house in the morning, the pupils will usually 
hasten to observe any experiment which is being conducted. 
During the long recess period, the teacher and a selected class of 
pupils may make short excursions in search of material. Occa- 
sionally a Saturday may be devoted to a visit to some local indus- 
try, or to an excursion for more extensive search and observation. 
Much of the mounting of specimens will be done at home. With 
the lower grades, the Nature Study will furnish material for the 
language lesson provided for on the daily program. In the upper 
grades it will furnish subjects for compositions. 

Special Equipment. — 

Nature herself has provided the equipment for nature study. 
No expensive apparatus is necessary. It is desirable that every 
school room should be provided with a large glass bowl or 
aquarium, a covered wire gauze box for watching the develop- 
ment of insect life, and a small simple microscope, which can be 
bought for 30c. The school will need some large sheets of card 
board for mounting specimens. The boys can make some shelves 
for the "museum" and such boxes and trays as the needed for 
germination experiments. 

The Preparation of the Teacher. 

While nothing is more stimulating to the individual pupil 
and to the school as a whole than a well planned lesson in 
nature study, there is no subject which requires more general and 
special preparation by the teacher. It is necessary for her to 
study thoroughly the community in which she is teaching. She 
should know the essential facts of its plant and animal life, 
should learn its resources and its industries, and should appreciate 
the elements of natural beauty which it possesses. She should 
read and study at least one of the following books : 

Hodge, Nature Study and Life. Ginn & Co. 

Coulter & Patterson, Practical Nature Study. Appleton. 

Holtz, Nature Study. Scribner. 



115 

Bailey, The Nature Study Idea. Doubleday, Page & Co. 

Hemenway, How to Make a School Garden. Doubleday, Page 
&Co. 

Bailey, The Training of Teachers of Agriculture in Public 
Schools. U. S. Bureau of Education. 

Teachers should send to the U. S. Department of Agriculture 
for a list of the publications of that department. From this 
list they should select those which promise to be helpful in their 
work, and should send a request for them. They will be mailed 
free in most' cases. Some of the most helpful material now in 
existence is published by this Department for free distribution. 

The school library should contain a well selected and graded 
collection of books relating to nature study. The pupils should 
be sent to these books when they have exhausted their own 
resources. After a lesson on birds, in which the pupil has become 
interested, it is most natural for him to want to read something 
more on the same subject. The library should supply his wants. 
The State library list adopted by the State Board of Education, 
contains many excellent books related to nature study. 

Classifued Suggestions on Course in Nature Study for 
Elementary Schooi-s of South Carolina. 

In the space which can be devoted to this subject in the Manual, 
it will not be possible to arrange a course in nature study by 
grades. The indefinite date of opening and the variable length of 
term in the schools of South Carolina would render it impossible 
to follow a course arranged by months. With a few classified sug- 
gestions, therefore, we much leave the details to the teachers her- 
self. It is not intended that any teacher should attempt to teach 
all the topics under one head before passing to the next. Some of 
these topics will continue throughout the year, and with others the 
season and the material at hand will determine the lesson for the 
week. The outline will serve as a sort of guide to the teacher in 
the selection of material and will enable her at the end of the year 
to check the ground covered. 

The Soil.— 

Let the children collect samples of the soil found in the 
school district. It may be classified into sand, clay, and loam. 
A small bottle of each should be put in the school "museum." 
If any characteristic rocks are to be found in the school district, 



116 

these should also be collected and studied. In many sections of 
the Piedmont the children may easily trace the processes in 
the formation of soil. In some railroad cut or deep cut in the 
road, they will find at the surface a fine sand mixed with rotten 
leaves and vegetable matter. Underneath, the sand becomes 
coarser and coarser until it merges into a more or less solid 
rock. How was the soil formed? It will be easy for the child 
to understand that the rotting of the rock under the influence of 
the rain and weather has produced the soil of the cultivated 
field. When the loam, sand, and clay make up the soil, the child 
should discover the relative position of each. 

How are sand and clay used in road building ? 

The teacher should lead the child to observe the process of 
erosion in the soil. Let him note the color of the stream after a 
heavy rain and arrive at the cause of the coloration. Let him 
discover what kind of soil washes most readily, and trace the 
formation of gullies. This erosion which he sees around him is 
the universal process in nature and his observation will be a 
basis for understanding the larger phases of erosion. After a 
freeze call the attention of the class to what takes place on the 
sides of a cut on the country road. Note the disintegrating pro- 
cess and the dropping of the soil down the sides of the cut. 

Let the pupils determine what kind of soil holds most water 
without becoming muddy. This may be shown by taking equal 
quantities of sand, cla,v, and garden loam and pouring measured 
quantities of water on each. Let them decide which kind of soil 
dries most readily after a rain. In which kind would a plant 
grow longest without rain? 

The pupils should test the fertility of these different kinds of 
soil by planting corn or beans in boxes containing clay, clean 
sand, and garden loam and noting in which the plant makes most 
rapid growth. Take your class out under a tree where the leaves 
have fallen for several years. Let them note the condition of the 
leaves on the surface and the changes which occur as they dig 
deeper into the soil. They will thus see that what we ordinarily 
know as soil is either sand or clay, or a mixture of the two filled 
with rotting vegetable matter, or humus. Let them test the effect 
of this dark soil, or humus, on a growing geranium plant. Let 
them plant a few grains of corn in a box of pure sand and other 
grains in a box half sand and half humus, and note the difference 
in growth. Then let them dissolve some black woods-earth in a 



117 

jar of water and with the solution water for a few days the corn 
planted in sand and observe the result. When it rains, have them 
observe what becomes of the water which falls on the hard road 
and that which falls on the plowed garden. Which takes in 
more water ? Why should a farmer break his land deep ? Which 
dries out more quickly, the loose soil or the hard soil? Let them 
test the effect of keeping the surface loose on the power to hold 
moisture. The teacher will carefully develop the fact that the 
soil furnishes the plant with part of its food and that it also 
serA'es to hold the roots so firmly that the plant will not be blown 
away. 

Distance and Direction — 

Have children observe where the sun rises and sets in Septem- 
ber, and from this starting point, teach the cardinal points of the 
compass. Where does the sun rise in June? In December? 
Drill on directions until they can tell the direction of the promi- 
nent places on the school district from the school house. Teach 
them to find "the big dipper" and the Xorth Star for determining 
directions at night. The teacher sliould endeavor to give the 
pupils a very definite idea of distance. They should fix on some . 
object one mile from the school house and should judge other 
distances in the neighborhood. Let pupils ascertain how long it 
will take them to walk a mile. See how far a ten-year-old boy 
can throw a baseball and determine how many throws he must 
make to carry the ball a mile. With the assistance of the teacher, 
the pupils should make a simple map of the school district show- 
ing the location of the roads and farm houses and the principal 
objects of interest. Thej^ should estimate the distance between 
the school and the homes of the pupils, and between other places 
in the district. 

Weather — 

The school should be provided with a thermometer, and the 
pupils should be taught how to read the temperature from it. 
The outdoor temperature should be taken by some younger pupil 
as soon as he comes in the morning, and again at noon and at 
the close of school. A record should be kept and the readings 
should be compared. As the year passes progressive changes in 
the temperature should be noted, and these should be associated 
with the position of the sun in the heavens. A stake should be 
set up in the yard and the length of its shadow measured at noon 
at the beginning of the school term in September and at intervals 



118 

until Christmas. Is tlie shadow growing longer or shorter? 
Wliy? From Christmas to May what happens to the shadow of 
the stake? Why? When does the sun rise at the opening of 
the school session? When does it set? When does the sun rise 
and set at Christmas? When at the close of the school term? 
Is there any connection between this and the temperature? 

Have the pupils take an ordinary calendar and keep a record 
of the fair, the cloudy, and the rainy days. Let them indicate 
by yellow disks the fair days, by red the cloudy days, and by 
black the rainy days. Let them set up a wind vane and note the 
direction in which the wind is blowing. From what direction 
does the wind blow before a rain? From what direction does it 
blow most often? Let them observe the different kinds of clouds 
and note the direction in which they are moving. Is there any 
kind of cloud which usually means rain? Any which is usually 
seen in dry weather? As a preparation to the study of winds, 
have the pupils note the movements of the air currents about the 
stove in the school room. This may be made evident by knocking 
two erasers together in the neighborhood of the stove and noting 
the direction in which the chalk particles move. 

When water is sprinkled on the floor in the school room what 
becomes of it? What becomes of the rain which falls in the 
light summer shower? Develop the fact that the air contains 
moisture. When a pitcher of ice water is placed in a warm room, 
where does the water come from which collects on the outer sur- 
face of the pitcher? When warm air containing moisture comes 
in touch with any cold object, what happens? If a warm wind 
should blow over the Gulf of Mexico and in South Carolina 
should meet a colder current from the North or East, what would 
happen ? When the rain falls on the earth one part of it runs off 
immediately into the streams, another part goes back into the air 
by evaporation, what does the rest do ? What finally becomes of 
this part ? The teacher should bring out the idea that part of the 
water which sinks into the ground runs out again as springs, 
and that part of it is taken up into the roots of plants. 
Plant Study- 
On account of the abundance of material, the esthetic value, 
and the economic importance of the subject, plant study will form 
a large part of the nature study course. 

Since most schools will open in Autumn, seeds and fruits will 
naturally receive the first attention. Have the pupils collect and 



119 

bring to school as many specimens as they can find of seeds which 
grow in the community. These should be classified into useful 
seed and harmful seed. Specimens may be mounted on sheets of 
paper with a bit of glue, or may be more carefully arranged in 
small bottles for the "museum." A little contest to see who can 
bring to school the most varieties of correctly labeled seeds, will 
produce quick results. The pupils will easily learn to recognize 
all the seeds in the collection. 

The primary pupils should be taught to look upon the seed 
as a little sleeping plant surrounded by a supply of food which it 
can use on awakening until it gets its roots and leaves and can 
make its own living. The children should soak some of the larger 
seeds in water, remove the outer covering and find the little 
plant. 

Of course, it would not do for all the little plants to settle down 
in the same spot. There would not be food enough to go round, 
and they would shade each other to death. They must be scat- 
tered so that they will have plenty of space in which to grow. 
How do they manage to get scattered ? Do not tell the children, 
but let them discover all the ways they can. How are milk-weed, 
thistle, dandelion, elm, maple, and pine seed scattered ? How are 
peach seed and apple seed distributed? How does the burdock, 
or the cockle burr get its seeds carried ? Show that the seeds which 
are useful to man rely on him to scatter them, and do not develop 
any other expedient. The cotton and the okra plants are first 
cousins. What different devices have they used to induce man 
to scatter their seed ? The peach and the almond are also cousins. 
How do they persuade man to look after them? If the peach 
tree could give its reasons for covering its seed with the luscious 
fruit, what might it say ? State a reason which the cotton plant 
might give for covering its seed with fibre? Seeds which are 
harmful to man or which grow wild have to devise all kinds of 
ways to get about. Find all the ways you can. 

Do all plants have seed? Do all trees? Does the elm tree? 
Watch the elm about February 1st. Have the children bring to 
school or make a list of plants which do not have seed. Do not 
hasten the work. Awaken their interest and the whole community 
will soon be at work on the problem. Let them discover that by 
seeds is only one of the ways in which plants propagate them- 
selves, or form new plants of the same kind. How do we get 
new geranium plants? New chrysanthemum plants? New 



120 

oleander trees? How are begonias, sweet potatoes, and Irish 
potatoes propagated ? How does the farmer in the coast country 
of South Carolina get his new crop of sugar cane? How does 
the onion reproduce itself? The lily? The gladiolus? The nut 
grass? The burmuda grass? Did you ever see a sweet potato 
blossom? A sweet potato seed? Find plants which reproduce 
themselves in more than one way. Make a list of such plants 
and, whenever possible, add the plant to the school collection. 

Many flowers will still be blooming in the Autumn when school 
opens. Encourage the pupils to bring flowers to school and teach 
them hoAV to arrange them in the best way in vases for purposes 
of decoration. Let them make a list of flowers which are still in 
bloom in the Autumn. 

Autumn is the principal harvest time of the year. Make a list 
of the crops and vegetables which are raised and harvested in your 
school community. At what time of the year is each gathered? 
Tell how each is harvested. Which are useful as food for man? 
Which as food for animals? Which furnish clothing? What 
parts of these plants do we use for food? Of the food plants in 
South Carolina, of which do we eat the seed? Of which the 
leaves? Of which the stem or stalk? Of which the root? Of 
which the fruit or pulpy seed covering? How is each of these 
prepared for food ? 

The last question forms an excellent illustration of the different 
levels of treatment applicable to the various grades of the school. 
The primary pupils may say of potatoes, "They are baked in a 
stove," or "They are peeled, sliced, and fried." The class of 
larger girls interested in cooking may study the composition of 
potatoes and the effect of cooking on the starch. The question 
suggests a course in elementary cooking in the advanced grades. 
If wheat is the crop under consideration, it will be sufficient for 
the younger children to understand the process of threshing it 
from the straw and the fact that the grain is then ground into 
flour and made into bread. With the older. pupils the process of 
grinding may be thoroughly described, and with the most 
advanced class the principles of bread making and their practical 
application may close the subject. 

It must be thoroughly understood that each of the subjects 
must be worked out largely by the pupils. Mere talks and answers 
by the teacher are of little value. Frequently very little of the 
work will be done at the school. It is the object of the teacher 



121 

to wake up the mind of the pupil and the interest of the com- 
munity. When this has been done, she will have accomplished 
the chief aim of nature study. 

Which of the plants named clothes the world? Observe and 
describe the whole process of picking, weighing, ginning, baling 
and marketing cotton. What did people do before the cotton gin 
was invented? In Brooks' "The Story of Cotton," read the 
account of the invention of the cotton gin and the description 
of the first machine constructed. If possible visit a cotton mill 
and follow the cotton from the bale to the finished cloth. Get 
from a farmer a sample of unginned cotton and from the mill a 
specimen illustrating every step in the process of manufacture. 
Mount these on cards for the "museum." 

Note how the plants prepare for winter. Enjoy the bright 
hues of the forest. Gather leaves for drawing models and for 
decorating the school room. Make a collection of the leaves from 
the trees in your community. Mount and label each for your 
"museum" collection. Notice the leaf scar when the leaves fall. 
Note the covering which nature puts on the buds to protect them 
from the cold. Examine twigs of the peach and apple and see 
if you can discover the fruit buds for next year's crop. What 
trees in your neighborhood do not shed their leaves in the fall? 
Find out the names of the trees in the neighborhood of the 
school. If you have difficulty in ascertaining the name and will 
send a specimen showing leaf, stem, flower, fruit and other 
characteristics to the Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, 
D. C, or to the Charleston Museum, Charleston, S. C, you will 
receive assistance in identification. 

Which trees in your district make the best lumber? Do you 
know the long leaf pine? The short leaf pine? The rosemary 
pine? Describe the method of cutting logs and transporting to 
the saw mill. Visit a saw mill and describe in detail the process 
of cutting the logs into lumber. Visit and describe a planing 
mill. 

In the fall and winter the care of house plants should receive 
attention. Window boxes and pots containing ferns, geraniums, 
begonias, or smilax will add to the beauty and attractiveness of 
the classroom. The cultivation of a love for plants and the 
ability to care for them successfully should be a part of every 
liberal education. Teach how to make cuttings of these plants, 
how to drain the pots, and how to mix the proper soil and fer- 



122 

tilizer. Encourage the exchange of plant cutting among the 
children of the district. On some day in early spring when the 
geraniums are in their prime, have an exhibit of pot plants 
loaned by the pupils, and award ribbons to those producing the 
best plants. Use "School Lessons on Plant Production," free 
Farmers' Bulletin No. 408, Department of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

In the fall and winter make plans for the next year's "Corn 
Club" and "Tomato Club." Encourage your pupils to attend the 
County Corn Fair if one is held. Get for each boy a copy of 
the Farmers' Bulletin No. 409, entitled "School Lessons on Corn," 
and let him learn how to select good corn for exhibition and seed. 
Let each boy bring to school the best ten ears of corn he can find 
as described in the bulletin. Have an exercise in corn judging. 
Let the boys make some trays at home or in the school work- 
room and test the germination of the ears selected for seed after 
the manner described in the bulletin. Encourage the members of 
the club to make a compost bed from manure of the winter 
stock feeding to be used on the prize acre of corn. The school 
may offer to test seed corn for the entire district and thus perform 
a wider agricultural service. 

As the spring comes on note the changes which gradually take 
place in plant life, such as the bursting of the buds, the move- 
ment of the sap as indicated by the fact that the bark may be 
removed from the growing layer of the twig, the blooming of 
the peach, the plum, and various wild trees, shrubs, and vines. 
One of the earliest trees to herald the coming spring is the 
elm. Let the pupils watch it bloom about February first. Have 
them observe the growth of its seeds and their mode of distribu- 
tion. Let them plant some elm seed. They will often sprout 
and grow before the leaves of the parent tree have yet appeared. 
The flowers of many plants are quite small and have none of the 
bright colors which we usually associate with flowers. Do not 
miss them on this account. 

Have your pupils note the coming of the spring flowers. 
Keep a record showing when each was first found. Identify the 
flowers as they appear and mount specimens for the "museum." 

The pupils should recognize the elements in a flower — the 
pistils, the stamen, the ovary, the calyx, the corrolla, the petals, 
etc., and should know the essential facts about pollination, cross 
fertilization, and the office of the wind and insects in pollination. 



123 

The parts should be distinguished first in a large flower like the 
cotton, the morning glory or the althea, and afterwards in a more 
complex flower. They will be interested in learning how Luther 
Burbank developed the plumcot by crossing the flowers of the 
plum and the apricot. When the corn blooms, one element of the 
flower is in the tassel, and the other in the silk. What is neces- 
sary to a full ear of corn ? Would you ordinarily plant pop corn 
and field corn near each other? How might you do it without 
mixing? When one stalk of corn grows alone why does the ear 
have only scattered grains? What happens to the corn crop 
when a drouth kills the tassels even though it should rain imme- 
diately afterwards? 

Why do flowers have color? Why odor? Why nectar? How 
is the pollen of odorless flowers scattered ? 

Lead pupils to observe the spring landscape and appreciate its 
beauty. Call their attention to the "candles of the pine" and 
the infinite shades of green in the forest. Have them pick the 
bits of scenery which in their opinion would make the best 
pictures for an artist to paint or the best photographs in colors. 

Note the preparation of the soil for the spring crops — the 
breaking, the harrowing, the terracing, the bedding, the drainage, 
the distribution of fertilizer, and the planting of the crops. Let 
pupils keep note of all the steps in the preparation and cul- 
tivation of the prize acre of corn or cotton, or other field at 
home, and at the end of the year describe minutely the method of 
cultivation. Let them make a list of all the tools used on the 
farm and describe the use of each. 

In the cultivation of the prize acre of cotton or other field, 
encourage the larger boys to keep an itemized account of the 
labor, seed, fertilizer, and other expenses of cultivation. Let 
them compare the total expense with the proceeds of the crop 
and determine the profit. The development of this habit among 
our farmers is absolutely necessary before farming becomes a 
business. 

Encourage the farmers of j^our school district to take their 
boys into partnership with them in farming. A boy who is given 
an acre or two of good land and is allowed to cultivate it under 
the best direction he can obtain and to have the proceeds of his 
labor for his own, will naturally develop an interest in agricul- 
ture. If the boy starts early enough, he may in this way earn 
enough money to pay his way through college. 



124 

With the coining of the warm spring weather begin the studies 
in the germination and growth of plants described in exercises 
9-15 in "School Exercises in Plant Production." Corn, beans, 
and radish seed planted between moist blotters will show the 
development of the parts of the plant and will enable pupils to 
see the root hairs. 

Conduct experiments to show that the plant needs soil, sun- 
shine, heat, and moisture for its development. Note the efforts 
of the young plant in a dark room to get its leaves into the sun- 
shine. 

Let the pupils examine the grain of corn after the plant has 
attained some size and tell what has happened to it. Draw 
inferences. Have them note the difference between the germi- 
nation and growth of the bean and the pea. 

What is a weed? What are the most troublesome weeds in 
your community? Learn to recognize these by leaves, flowers, 
and seed. How may we exterminate each kind most easily? 

Not all plants are large and showy. Some are so small and 
insignificant as to escape notice entirely. Collect the gray lichen 
from the stones and the moss from the bark of trees and examine 
carefully. Examine with a simple miscroscope the scum from 
a neighborhood pond. What do you find? Make a simple study 
of bacteria and their relation to disease. 

The Spanish moss, the water lily, and the mistletoe should 
be studied as examples of plants presenting marked peculiarities. 
What plants grow only in water? Only in a swamp? Only 
in a very dry place? Examine mushrooms, toad stools, and other 
fungus growths. Get from the Department of Agriculture the 
Farmers' Bulletin entitled "Edible Mushrooms." 

The School Garden — 

The school garden is a very desirable adjunct to the teaching 
of nature study and elementary agriculture. One does not really 
know a practical fact until he has gi^^en it practical application. 
Children will develop an intense interest in a school garden. 
At the Memminger Normal School in Charleston, S. C, we 
finally secured a piece of ground fift}"^ feet square for school 
gardening. This was cleared of brick-bats and rubbish, given 
a deep plowing, and fertilized with several loads of stable manure 
and street sweepings. It was then laid off into beds 3x6 feet 
and these were assigned to more than one hundred girls from 
twelve to fourteen years of age. It was planted in flowers and 



125 

vegetables with seed which were obtained free of cost from the 
United States Department of Agriculture. (Any teacher may 
secure free vegetable and flower seed sufficient for her whole 
school from the United States Dept. of Agriculture.) An intense 
interest was developed at once. Girls came early in the morning 
to work and water their gardens; at recess the plot was filled 
with busy girls, and some even remained at the close of school 
to plant and cultivate. Every county school house in South 
Carolina should have a plot set aside for a flow^er and vegetable 
garden. 

There are some obstacles to success in the school garden which 
the teacher should face frankly before beginning. It may be 
that she herself knows little of gardening. This is a defect which 
can be easily remedied — she can learn. The school is frequently 
open for the fall and winter and closes before the spring garden 
has a chance to come to its full development. In this very 
obstacle the rural teacher has an opportunity to perform a real 
service. In most parts of South Carolina it is possible to have 
an excellent fall and winter garden. Many people have not dis- 
covered the fact. Radish, lettuce, onions, turnips, celery, and 
strawberries may be planted and set out at the opening of the 
school in the fall and will be ready for use before the close of the 
school session. Sweet peas should be sown in the fall for spring 
blossoming. The teacher should get from Clemson College the 
bulletin on "Winter Gardening." She will then be in a position 
to make an actual contribution to the practical agriculture of 
her school district. 

In the school garden it is best to let each child have his 
individual plot and specialize on one or two kinds of vegetables 
or flowers. The children should be taught how to work the 
ground deep and fertilize thoroughly before planting, and to keep 
the plot in thorough cultivation. A weedy and neglected school 
garden is no ornament. The school should own the necessary 
garden tools as a part of its regular equipment. State Supervisor 
of Rural Schools C. J. Browne, of Louisiana, is working a plan 
by which the school is provided with a cold frame and furnishes 
the district with early cabbage, tomato and pepper plants. 

The Home Garden — 

After all, the garden at the school merely serves as an illus- 
tration. The best gardening should be done by the child at home 
following the suggestions, and under the inspiration of the 



126 

school. "The Boys' Corn Club" in the Southern States has given 
us a model. Interest the parents and children in the enterprise, 
announce an annual exhibit of garden products produced by 
pupils, offer a few prizes for the best specimens of flowers and 
vegetables, and you will insure the success of the school-home 
garden. 

Best of all, this garden awakens interest and gives instruction 
not only to the pupils, but to all the parents in the district. 
Teachers who are interested in the school garden should com- 
municate with the United States Department of Agriculture and 
secure publications of the department relating to this subject. 

Insects — 

Insects offer a rich field fo^' study and observation. The 
pupils should first be given a clear idea of the general character- 
istics of insects. How many legs has a fly? A bee? A grass- 
hopper? How many wings? How manj^ legs has a spider? A 
rose mite? A tick? Show the difference between insects and 
spiders. Call attention to the fact that the bodies of insects 
are divided into three parts and that they have six legs, while 
the bodies of spiders are divided into two parts and they have 
eight legs. 

Study the life history of typical insects. The children have 
perhaps seen small grasshoppers and large grasshoppers of the 
same kind. The small grasshoppers grow larger by shedding the 
hard covering and growing while the new covering is still soft. 
Do all insects grow in this manner? Does a small butterflj^ grow 
into a large butterfly? 

McMurry, in his "Special Method in Science," makes a study 
of the cabbage butterfly. The teacher may use this as a model 
for studying the life history of all butterflies and moths. 

Perhaps there are some cannas in your school yard or in the 
yard at home. Sometimes you may find the leaves of the canna 
twisted together and fastened by a silk web. If you will examine 
closely you will find enclosed in the leaf and eating it, a slender 
larva which we sometimes call a "worm." This is not a worm, 
but a young butterfly in the eating and growing stage. Let the 
pupils watch this larva eat and grow larger. One day it stops 
eating and fastens itself to the leaf with a silk thread, begins to 
grow shorter and to cover itself with a hard covering. It has 
reached the pupa or cocoon stage. Let the pupils take the leaf 
with the attached cocoon and place it under a wire gauze or in a 



127 

lamp chimney with a piece of mosquito netting over each end. If 
they are lucky they may see the butterfly come out of the pupa 
case. It may come out when they are not looking and be found 
fluttering about in the lamp chimney when they come to school 
in the morning. This is the adult form of the butterfly. The 
adult form will again lay eggs on the canna leaves and these will 
hatch into little larvae and complete the life history of the insect. 
The cotton boll worm is another larva whose life history should 
be traced by the pupils in this way. 

The silk "worm" offers a good illustration of the life history of 
insects, and is interesting also because of its economic importance. 
When the teacher is planting trees in the school yard, if she will 
plant one or two white mulberry trees, this study can be made. 
The trees and the eggs may perhaps be obtained from the 
Charleston museum or the United States Department of Agri- 
culture. The pupils can feed the little silk worms with the fresh 
leaves of the mulberry tree and watch them develop to their full 
size, spin the silk cocoon, and finally emerge as full grown silk 
moths. 

The school should study especially the life history of the mos- 
quito and the fly, because of the very dangerous part these insects 
play in the communication of yellow fever, malaria, and typhoid 
fever. The method of exterminating them should receive special 
attention. Study the insect enemies of the school garden. 

Study the life history of the honey bee and the important work 
of this useful insect in the production of honey and in the pollina- 
tion of flowers. A mounted collection of insects found in the 
neighborhood will make a fine addition to your school "museum." 

The possibilities of insect study are unlimited. Not all your 
pupils will become equally interested in the subject, but through 
your work some boy in your class may become an entomologist 
who may discover a successful method of fighting the boll weevil. 
All will gain a deeper insight into the marvelous adjustments of 
nature. 

Birds — 

Bird study is one of the most interesting forms of nature study. 
At the beginning of the school session make a list of all the birds 
which your pupils know by sight. Make a list of the birds which 
the teacher and pupils see and identify during the progress of 
the school year. It will be discovered that certain birds live in 
the community throughout the year, others are seen only during 



128 

the summer, and still others only when they are passing through 
going North or South. To assist in the identification of birds, 
the teacher should have on her desk Bird Guide — Laiid Birds East 
of the Rock]) Mountain^ Chas. K. Reed, Worchester, Mass., or 
Birds of Eastern North America^ Chapman. Mr. James Henry 
Rice, State Game Warden, Summerville, S. C, is an authority on 
South Carolina birds, and will no doubt take great pleasure in 
giving information to teachers who are interested in the subject. 

Let your pupils study the feeding habits of birds. Which eat 
seed? Which eat insects ? Which catch insects in the air? Which 
feed on tree borers? What else do birds eat? Is the coming and 
going of birds in any way connected with the food supply? Study 
certain typical birds. One of the most interesting birds in South 
Carolina is the quail, or bob-white. On what does the quail live 
in the winter? Show his great importance to the farmer in 
devouring weed seeds and insects. Study his nest building. As 
soon as the little bob- white is hatched he is able to run about and 
help find his own food. What other birds are like him in this 
respect? How does the mother quail protect her young before 
they can fly ? 

Look carefully into the nest of a bluebird and thrush, or some 
other song bird, without disturbing it. Describe the little birds 
as you find them. How do they differ from the young quail? 
How does the mother bird feed them? Sit quietly where you can 
see the nest and count the times the parent birds visit the nest 
to bring worms in the course of an hour. How do these birds help 
the farmer? Impress the great economic importance of birds 
and develop in the child a desire to protect them. In the winter, 
if grits or other food is scattered in a certain place for a few 
days, the birds may be induced to visit the spot regularly and they 
will become quite tame. By working gently and patiently, 
ordinary wild birds have been persuaded to eat from the hands of 
a little boy or girl. The school can easily attract a pair of blue- 
birds by building a house for them after the following plan 
furnished by Mr. W. H. Wylie, Superintendent of Buildings and 
Grounds, Winthrop College : 

"The best nest for a bluebird is a section of a hollow tree, but 
this is hard to get. If this cannot be obtained, use weather-worn 
boards, because the bluebird will not go into a box made of new 
boards. Make the house six or eight inches square and eighteen 
inches deep. The door should be twelve inches from the bottom 



129 

of the box, and near the top other small holes should be bored for 
ventilation. The box should be placed on the top of a pole about 
six feet from the ground. The sparrows will usually take a box 
placed higher than six or eight feet. A stick should be nailed to 
the side of the box extending four feet above it for a perch for 
the birds." 

Pupils should be made to feel strongly the cruelty of robbing 
birds' nests and of killing birds, especially during the nesting 
season. Tell them the story of the egret and how the plume 
hunters sought out the nesting places of these birds on the eastern 
coast of the United States, killing the adult birds and leaving the 
young nestlings to starve. Tell them about the Audubon Society 
and its efforts to preserve the bird life of our country. 

Animals — 

The pupils should make a list of the wild and the domesticated 
animals found in the school district. They should study their 
habits and should especially be taught kindness to domesticated 
animals. Every child should either read or hear read the story of 
''Black Beauty." 

Local Industries — 

A knowledge of local industries furnishes a basis for the 
understanding of the manufacturing and other industries which 
enter so largely into the geography work of the pupil. We 
have already referred to some of these industries, such as the 
cotton gin, the cotton mill, the saw^ mill. The pupils should 
be encouraged to visit the factories in the school district. The 
teacher may arrange with the superintendent for a visit by the 
whole class under her escort. There is nothing more common 
in modern timies than the newspaper, yet very few people have 
any conception of the process of setting type, or of stereotyping, 
and printing as conducted in a modern newspaper plant. 
Arrange a visit to the newspaper office. The rice mill, the iron 
foundry, the turpentine still, the power plant, the brick kiln, the 
fertilizer factory, and other local industries should be studied. 
The pupil should know the resources of his own community and 
the school should be a potent factor in opening his eyes to the 
possibilities of development which exist in every county in 
South Carolina. Every boy and girl should be inspired to 
make some contribution to the community welfare. 

Caution — 



9— T. M. 



130 

No teacher will attempt to teach everything contained in the 
preceding suggestions in any one year, or even in the entire 
school course. If she should touch vitally on the essential points 
during the seven or eight years of the elementary school, her 
work would deserve hearty commendation. 

AGRICULTURE. 

The School Law of South Carolina includes the subject of 
agriculture among the studies which shall be taught in the 
elementary schools of the State. Elementary agriculture is 
nature study in practical operation. The teacher who has 
studied carefully and has taught faithfully the suggested course 
in nature study, will already have made an excellent introduc- 
tion to the subject of agriculture. Duggar's "Agriculture for 
Southern Schools," which has been adopted by the State Board 
of Education as text-book for the elementary schools, should be 
placed in the hands of the pupils in the seventh grade, and it 
should systematize and amplify the knowledge which they have 
already been accumulating through nature study. The book 
gives an admirable discussion of the elementary facts of the 
agriculture of our section, and perhaps no further suggestions 
are needed to insure its proper presentation by the teacher. 

She should remember that the test of agriculture is not in 
knowledge, but in practice. In order to vitalize the book, the 
pupil should bring to the study an interest which he has acquired 
through some practical experiment in which he is engaged. A 
boy who is raising an acre of cotton, who is experimenting with 
a new kind of peanut, or new variety of watermelon, who is 
raising pigs or chickens, will naturally acquire an interest and 
enthusiasm which would otherwise be impossible. 

If, in the progress of her work with the text-book, the teacher 
should discover that her pupils have developed a particular 
interest in any topic, she should not hesitate to follow this line 
of interest and to supplement the book extensively by means of 
Government and Clemson Bulletins, even though this should 
make necessary the omission of other chapters. An intense and 
practical interest in a few things will be more effective than a 
dissipation of energy over a larger field. The teacher should 
utilize the school garden, The Corn Club, the Canning and 
Poultry Club, The County Fair, and The Corn Fair to develop 



131 

interest in agriculture among the older boys and girls. The 
school agriculture should not be something set off by itself, but 
should be a vital part of the whole agricultural movement in 
progress in the county where the school is situated. 

Brooks' "The Story of Cotton" has been adopted by the State 
Board of Education for supplementary reading in agriculture. 
Cotton is and will remain the staple crop of the South. Its 
condition and prospects are matters of vital concern to the whole 
world. It is exceedingly important that the people of the South 
should know intimately the facts relating to its cultivation, its 
marketing, and its manufacture. They should know the story 
of the development of the cotton industry and should appreciate 
its great economic importance to the South. 

GEOGEAPHY. 

Objects of Geography Teaching. 

1. Geography has a definite practical value. To know the 
location of places, the lines of communication between them, the 
products and industries of different sections and their commercial 
relations, has a very concrete business value and should be a part 
of the mental equipment of every well informed man and 
woman. 

2. Geography appeals to the child's powers of observation and 
reasoning. It is usually his introduction to science and sets the 
stage for history. Through this study we get a vivid conception 
of the relation between cause and effect. The necessity for 
imaging scenes and countries unlike our own, develops the imag- 
ination as few other subjects can do. 

3. The study broadens our human sympathies and brings 
vividly before us the interdependence of all mankind. The 
farmer on the wheat fields of the Dakotas is feeding the world 
and the humblest farmer in the South Carolina cotton field may 
glory in the fact that he has a part in clothing the nations to 
the "uttermost parts of the earth." The fruit of the tropics and 
the teas of the Orient supply our breakfast tables. The study of 
geography brings to us a clearer realization of the brotherhood 
of man and tends to hasten the time when the nations "shall 
beat their swords into plowshares" and there shall be no more 
strife nor bloodshed. 



132 

Nature Stioy and Geography. 

The fundaineiital ideas of geograph}^ center in man and are 
connected with the soil, the forms of land and water, distance 
and direction, plant and animal life and natural resources and 
their resulting industries. The language of geography has a 
meaning only when it is given a. content by observation at first 
hand. Nature study along the lines indicated in the preceding 
suggestions is thus necessary to a satisfactory understanding of 
geography. This study should both precede and accompany 
the work in the text-book. For a great majority of pupils 
geography and work correlated with it will furnish the only 
insight into the science group of studies. This fact should 
challenge our best efforts to make the course as rich as possible. 

Geography and History. 

Geography and history are so intimately related that it is 
almost impossible to present one without the other. The his- 
torical reasons for facts in geography and the geographical 
reasons for facts in history should receive continual emphasis. 
During the history lesson the map should be in constant use by 
the teacher and pupils. A zigzag journey around the world in 
current history makes an excellent review in location of places. 

Methods in Geography. 

The experience of the child will usually be confined to a very 
limited area of the world. The problem of the geograph}' 
teacher is to provoke ^an intimate acquaintance wdth the limited 
environment in which he lives and through the expansion of the 
resulting ideas to give him a conception of the Avhole world and 
its activities. In this work the teacher will use all the resources 
she can command. 

1. She should make a collection of pictures illustrating geo- 
graphical ideas. The text-book itself will be rich in such illus- 
trations and the teacher can add to this material indefinitely by 
post card collections or by pictures cut from magazines and 
other periodicals and pasted on card board. In order to classify 
these pictures for ready use, the teacher should provide herself 
with twenty-five or more manilla envelopes from ten to twelve 
inches square. In these envelopes she should collect and classify 



133 

her pictures for use when they are needed. Comparatively few 
children have seen the ocean. One envelope should be devoted 
to pictures showing phases of the ocean. Another might be 
filled with pictures illustrating rivers, lakes, and other forms of 
water. Mountain Scenery, Means of Transportation, National 
Costu?nes, AgricuUur'e in Many Lands, Schools in other Lands, 
Lumhering, Cotton from the Field to the Counter, State Capitols, 
and dozens of other headings would suggest interesting collec- 
tions of pictures. The collections may be made a part of the 
""museum" to which we have made such frequent reference. 

2. The library should be provided with geographical readers 
and authentic books of travel and these should be used freely 
in the course of the recitations and for reading at home. Car- 
penter's "Geographical Readers," Chamberlain's "How We Are 
Clothed." "How We Are Fed," "How We Are Sheltered," the 
"Seven Little Sisters.'* the "Our Little Cousin" series, and hun- 
dreds of other books, many of them on the State Library list, will 
give to the pupils a conception of the life of people in other parts 
of the world. The younger children will naturally be interested 
in the children of other lands. Arrange an exchange of letters 
between your pupils and school children in other States and 
other English-.speaking countries. 

3. Pupils should be taught how to read and use the maps. 
To acquire a conception of a map, the pupil should be taught 
to draw a plan of the school room on a scale of one inch to a 
foot, then one inch to a yard, and to locate the objects in the 
room. Then the farm on which the pupil lives may be mapped 
and the various points on it indicated. The next step is drill on 
direction and distance and in the use of the scale. This may be 
given as indicated on pages I and II of the South Carolina Sup- 
plement to Maury's Elements of Geography. 

Since the maps in the Geography are drawn on different 
scales the pupil has a tendency to become confused in his ideas 
of relative size. The teacher should check against this confusion 
by comparison on a large map, and by constant reference to the 
scale on which the map is drawn. The school should be pro- 
vided with a complete set of good maps. Preferably they should 
be mounted singly in the light, dust proof steel case. 

The pupils should have much drill in map drawing. Sketch- 
ing is better than the labored copying and coloring which we 
see so frequently. The pupil should be taught to look at the 



134 

map, secure a mental picture, sketch the outline and look at the 
map again to check the result. Early in the training he should 
be taught to use meridians and parallels as guides in map 
drawing. To fix the location of mountain ranges and to teach 
relief in general, he should make a relief map on the ground in 
the school yard, or on the sand table. Old newspapers may be 
soaked in water and reduced to a pulp and from this material 
relief maps may be made on pieces of thin wooden board or card- 
board. They may be colored and made quite elaborate in detail. 
The pupils are naturally interested in the manual activity neces- 
sary to the making of such maps. It is possible w^ith the crayon 
to indicate on the blackboard the relief of the section which is 
being studied. 

4. The school should possess a good twelve-inch globe. It is 
only by means of the globe that we get a true idea of the relative 
size, and position of the continents and oceans. The globe, or 
some substitute for it, is necessary to clear explanation of the phe- 
nomena of day and night and the change of seasons. 

5. The teacher will continually make her work concrete and 
give meaning to the words of the texts by appealing to the 
pupil's own experience and observation. The class should occa- 
sionally make a special geographical excursion in which obser- 
vations are confined to land and water forms or to some special 
topic which is under consideration. After a rain the pupils 
may easily find near the school-room miniature illustrations of 
divides, water falls, rapids, rain erosion, stream erosion, deltas, 
stratification, islands, isthmuses, peninsulas, etc., etc. 

6. The teacher should master the art of presenting geography 
by type studies. McMurry gives a capital illustration of this 
method of teaching in the study of Minneapolis in his Method 
of the Recitation. In Chapter X of his "Special Method in Geog- 
raphy" the teacher will find many other suggestions for type 
study. 

In Maury's Elements, South Carolina Home Geography is 
presented as an elementary type study of the section in which 
we are most interested. After the teacher has spent several 
weeks on these pages and has worked out our own State in the 
detail suggested by the treatment, it will be easy for the pupil 
to form a mental picture of any other Southern State. He may 
say, "Georgia is like South Carolina except that, etc., etc." All 
that is necessary is to name the points of variation from the 



135 

type studied. The South Carolina teachers should make an 
intimate study of Charleston as a type of the Southern seaport 
city. The reason for its location, its relation to the early indus- 
tries of South Carolina, the occupation of its people, its foreign 
and coast-wise shipping, and its prospects for growth should 
be studied not only for their own sake, but also as elements of a 
type which may be used in the further study of cities. This 
study should be given the time necessary to secure a vivid 
mental picture. When we reach Wilmington, Savannah, Mobile, 
New Orleans and Galveston it will only be necessary to indicate 
the points in which these cities differ from Charleston. 

If a Sumter County boy has made a complete study of the town 
of Sumter as a trade and manufacturing center, it will be suffi- 
cient for a fair knowledge of Rock Hill for him to say, "Rock 
Hill is like Sumter except that it has Winthrop College and a 
buggy factory instead of a telephone factory." "Florence is 
like Sumter except that it has tobacco warehouses and railroad 
shops instead of a telephone factory." 

7. Geographical causes and effects should receive special 
attention. Charleston does not "just happen" to be in its present 
position. "Why is Charleston?" is just as important a question 
as "Where is Charleston?" Charleston was once a more import- 
ant city than New York. Why has New York outgrown 
Charleston? What should be the effect of the Panama Canal 
on Charleston? Wliy is Orangeburg located where it is? Why 
is Spartanburg growing so rapidly? What causes have made 
Chicago great? What natural advantages have made Denver? 
What geographical facts have determined the location of the 
transcontinental railways? Why is there an American Desert? 
Wliy does California have a wet season and a dry season? Why 
is the Tigro-Euphrates Valley now a desert when in Bible times 
it was the most densely populated region on earth? Such ques- 
tions as these should be the normal state of mind with the student 
of geography. 

8. The great industries of men should also receive special atten- 
tion. The study of local industries should be a preparation for 
this wider view. The teacher should not be content that the 
pupils should laiow merely that Pennsylvania is a coal producing 
State. The methods of mining and marketing coal are more 
interesting and more significant. Make a special study of the 
agriculture of the food staples, the building industries, the flour 



136 

mill, the rice mill, the meat packing industry, the canning factory, 
cotton and woolen mills, the tannery and shoe factory, the paper 
mill, and the great business of transportation. This work will 
involve extensive supplementing of the text-book from the school 
library and the current magazines and newspapers. 

9. While doing this more vital and more interesting work, the 
teacher should not forget that pupils need to know the location 
of places on the earth. She will endeavor to fix in the mind of 
pupils a clear image of the earth's surface with its physical 
features and political divisions. In this map study, only the 
significant places should be located, but these should be learned 
definitely. When a continent or a smaller division has been 
studied a map should be drawn in outline and the pupils required 
to locate important places. The State of South Carolina and 
the United States should receive special attention this way. A 
pupil in the sixth grade should be able easily to locate the coun- 
ties and rivers of our State on the outline map, and should fix 
the position of the principal cities. He should possess such a 
clear mental image of the United States that he can easily answer 
questions like the following: Name in order the States which 
touch the Atlantic Ocean. Which touch of the Gulf of Mexico? 
Which touch Canada? Which the Pacific Ocean? The Missis- 
sippi River? Which the Great Lakes? Through which do the 
Rocky Mountains run ? The rivers, mountains, and other physical 
and political features should form a part of the map drill. 

Imaginary journeys are excellent devices to fix locations. The 
teacher should prepare a series of questions such as the follow- 
ing : How Avould you go from Columbia to Manila ? Name the 
important places through which you would pass on the journey. 

There should be constant comparison and correlation as we 
study the various countries. In the comparison of North America 
and South America, such a question as. Which is best adapted to 
the development of great civilization? will bring out the signifi- 
cant differences in the two grand divisions. 

HYGIENE AND SANITATION. 

While this subject will occupy only a short space in the Manual, 
it is the most vitally important of the whole list. Without health 
there can be little happiness or efficiency. The whole school 
course and every school activity should inspire the pupils to 



137 

desire and strive for health, strength, and cleanliness of body 
and soul. 

Hygiene, like Civics, is more largely a matter of habit than of 
knowledge. Habit is much more easily developed by example 
than by precept. The teacher's attitude towards health and 
cleanliness, and her own example as evident in the school room 
and its surroundings, will speak with greater weight and author- 
ity than any word she may utter on the subject. The following 
suggestions from the "Wisconsin Manual of the Elementary 
Course of Study" are so pertinent that we quote them in full: 

"Before planning the class work in hygiene the teacher (and 
also the board and patrons) should consider carefully the follow- 
ing suggestions : 

"1. Cleanliness of the room. Are the walls and the ceilings 
clean or is the dust filling the cracks and crevices? Is the floor 
clean? Have the windows been washed? Ordinarily the school 
room floor should be washed at least once a month. 

"Note: In sweeping, the dust can be kept down to a great 
extent by using a 'sweeping compound.' The dust particles are 
tiny 'air ships' in which microbes of all kinds ride. 

"2. Are the school grounds w^ell drained, or does the water 
stand around the school house in wet weather? Is it muddy 
around the school house when it rains? A few loads of gravel 
may add much to the appearance of the grounds, and to their 
sanitary condition. Many schools have good walks from the road 
to the school house door. 

"3. Are the outbuildings in good condition ? Are they clean ? 
Are they free from marks? They should be scrubbed at the same 
time the school house is scrubbed. These buildings have much to 
do with the health of the children. Waste materials and poison- 
ous substances kept within the body often give rise to disease. 
Filthy and poorly constructed outbuildings promote in the 
children habits which often lead to serious abdominal troubles. 
Are the doors in good condition. A little child may refrain from 
going to the outbuilding if the door is off its hinges or unscreened. 

"4. Is fresh air coming into the room during school hours, or 
are the children breathing over and over again the same air ? If 
the parents, board, and teacher are really providing for fresh air 
to enter, and for foul air to escape, they are teaching a lesson in 
hygiene that is infinitely more valuable than pages of a text-book 
memorized and recited word for word. 



138 

"5. Is the room evenly heated? Is the stove able to do its 
work? Do you know how to get the most out of it? Can you 
make the fire and do you understand how to regulate the dampers 
and slides? Is the fuel in good condition, and is kindling pro- 
vided? Is the floor cold? Is there a draft near the window? 
The temperature of the school room should ordinarily be from 
68 to 70 degrees. A good thermometer will indicate the tempera- 
ture where the pupils sit. Fresh air is one of the conditions for 
good work in school, it should be provided and should be well dis- 
tributed. 

"Note : In order to have the school house heated to a uniform 
temperature it is often necessary to repair the building itself. 

"6. Is there light enough in the room ? The sun does not shine 
through the north windows during school hours; therefore, do 
not cover up the best portion of these windows with a shade. Get 
as much light as possible into the room, but do not let any of 
the children sit in the direct sunlight. Pupils should not sit 
facing a window. Are there any pupils with weak eyes ? Strain- 
ing the eyes when they are in such a condition may result in per- 
manent injury. 

"7. Note the position of children sitting or standing in school. 
If improper postures are habitual, a few drills may be of value in 
straightening them up. If Bancroft's 'School Gymnastics' is in 
the library, suggestions may be gotten from that. Sometimes we 
find the pupils studying and reciting the physiology lesson in 
such a posture as to violate the very laws of health they are 
learning about. 

"8. Are the desks of the proper sizes? Are they arranged 
properly so that the children are comfortable ? Do the children's 
feet rest on the floor, or are they dangling in mid air? Do they 
have to bend over when they are writing? The desk should 
usually overlap the seat back of it from two to three inches. 
Remember these desks should be for the convenience and comfort 
of the children, rather than for adults. Is there any child whose 
seat is too high for the desk in front of him? It is of little use 
to teach the children the nature and composition of the bony 
framework of the body and at the same time permit conditions to 
exist that allow this framework to become deformed. When new 
desks are needed, urge the board to purchase single desks. 

"9. How about the water supply? Is the water good? Is the 
ordinary open water-pail in use ? The common drinking cup has 



139 

been outlawed in Wisconsin and now every child should have his 
own cup. Let us suppose there is a child in school who has con- 
sumption in its first stages. How about the child who uses the 
cup next ? At present there are 2,500 deaths from tuberculosis in 
this State every year. There are surely some cases in our schools. 

"10. Is the teacher and are the children neat in personal 
appearance ? Is the school provided with a wash basin, soap, and 
towels ? Since the school is a part of the home, the equipment is 
not complete unless these articles are present. 

"11. Are the pupils taking proper exercise? Are there any 
pupils who stay in the school room during recesses ? Their grow- 
ing bodies need outdoor activities. Exercise tones them up. 

"12. Do any children sit with their mouths open? Do the 
children breathe through their mouths? Perhaps there are some 
physical defects present, such as adenoid growths, enlarged ton- 
sils, or the like. Are any of the pupils nearsighted? Any who 
cannot see the work on the board? If Barry's 'Hygiene of the 
School Room' is in the library, test the pupils' ej^es by means of 
the charts given in Chapter 7. Are the blackboards of a glossy 
appearance so that it is difficult to see the writing? It is ridiculous 
to give instructions regarding the anatomy of the eye when such 
conditions are found. Are there any children whose hearing is 
defective ? 

"13. Are the children provided with good shoes, or do they sit 
in the school room with wet feet? Rubbers should not be worn 
in the school room. 

"14. Are the children getting plenty of sound, refreshing sleep ? 
Is it a custom for the children to attend social functions fre- 
quently, stay up late at night, and eat late luncheons? Such 
practices mean poor work in school as well as a nervous strain 
that is detrimental to health. 

"Are their sleeping rooms supplied with fresh air?" 

It is only when the school house and its surroundings have been 
made clean and sanitary, or when we are striving earnestly 
towards that goal that we can teach cleanliness effectively to the 
children. If the teacher neglects her own health, keeps late hours, 
eats improper food, and comes to school cross, or neglects the 
temperature, the lighting, the ventilation, and the sanitation of 
the school and its surroundings, her "lessons in hygiene" will 
have little weight. 



140 

Methods of Instruction ix Hygiene and Sanitation. 

Ritchie's "Primer of Hygiene" has been assigned a regular 
place in the program of studies for the fourth grade. Pupils of 
this grade are old enough to read and study the book itself. The 
book, however, should serve merely to review, organize, and 
amplify the oral lessons in hygiene which should have formed a 
part of the child's instruction from the first grade. The same 
should be said of the "Primer of Sanitation" which has been 
assigned a place in the sixth grade. These books constitute an 
admirable presentation of the essential facts of hygiene and sani- 
tation. The teacher should be thoroughly familiar wuth their 
contents, and should use them constantly as a guide in her oral 
work. 

In the lower grades cleanliness^ healthy and strength should be 
the keynotes of the instruction in hygiene. Clean nails, clean 
hands, clean teeth, clean bodies, clean clothes, clean food, clean 
water, clean surroundings, and clean thoughts are good Avatch- 
words for children. From the very beginning the teacher should 
let the children realize that a thing may look perfectly clean and 
yet be dangerously dirty. As an illustration, teach how tuber- 
culosis and typhoid fever are disseminated. Children should be 
taught to avoid such habits as spitting promiscuously, putting 
their fingers, pencils, or other objects in their mouths, and should 
be taught to use individual drinking cups. The only way to 
insure the use of the tooth-brush is to impress the lesson so 
thoroughly that the child will feel uncomfortable every day until 
it has been used. This is true of all hygienic and sanitary meas- 
ures. In natural connection with the lessons on cleanliness the 
teacher should call attention to the tobacco and cigarette habit 
as opposed to cleanliness. 

Every child wishes to be strong and well. This desire may be 
made a motive for good habits in eating, for right kinds of exer- 
cise, for correct posture, for sufficient sleep and rest, for study to 
strengthen the brain, and for abstinence from anything which 
would work against perfect health and strength. Call attention to 
the fact that the best colleges will not allow the athletic teams to 
smoke cigarettes. All forms of alcohol injure health and strength, 
and prevent that best bodily and mental development which 
should be the ambition of every boy. The course should include 
a discussion of the means of preventing such diseases as con- 
sumption, typhoid fever, malaria, smallpox, and hookworm dis- 



141 

ease, and should lay strong and deep foundation for home and 
public sanitation. 

The teacher should have on her desk the monthly bulletins of 
The State Board of Health. They may be obtained by dropping 
a postcard to the State Department of Health, Columbia, S. C. 
All teachers are urged to read and heed the earnest appeal of 
Dr. Ward which follows. 

As an incentive to development of health, strength, and mus- 
cular activity, the teacher should encourage in every way whole- 
some games and sports on the school ground. A desire on the 
part of the boys to develop a winning team in the County Field 
Day exercises will prove an effective argument against cigarettes, 
laziness, and other harmful habits. Teachers should secure from 
Clemson College a bulletin entitled "Track and Field Sports for 
High and Elementary Schools." 

SCHOOL SANITATION. 
Dr. J. LaBruce Ward, State Director of Rural Sanitation. 

The term sanitation, in its broad sense, comprises all measures 
used to prevent disease. It includes, therefore, the isolation of 
persons who have contagious or infectious diseases, and the 
employment of measures to prevent diseases which, strictly 
speaking, are not "contagious." For instance, we can prevent 
malaria by living in screened houses and by sleeping under nets. 
The same thing may be accomplished by taking a small dose of 
quinine daily during the mosquito season. We can guard against 
typhoid fever by properly disinfecting the body discharges from 
the patient, by screening against flies, and by having pure drink- 
ing water. 

Public education in sanitation and hygiene is the only way 
to prevent disease. Hookworm disease, because it lowers the 
vitality of its victims and makes them succumb to other diseases, 
is indirectly responsible for many deaths each year in our State. 
A cheap privy for each family in the State would in a few years 
cause hookworm disease to disappear. It would also lessen 
typhoid fever, diarrhoea and other intestinal diseases. ^Vhy, 
then, do the people not construct and use sanitary closets? 
Because no one has instructed them. And why has no one 
instructed them? Because we have been brought up to believe 
that to say "privy" is to be disgraced. It is high time for us to 



142 

let this false modesty and prudery give way before common 
sense. These things can, without violating any of the laws of 
decency or true modesty, be discussed in the school room and out 
of it. In what other way can the people be educated about disease 
prevention? Each of us is his brother's keeper. The failure 
to realize this is responsible for many new graves each year. 

Holding as she does, the esteem and confidence of the people 
of the community, the teacher working in the rural districts is 
in a position to do an invaluable service for mankind. If she 
does not preach the gospel of health, she is failing in that which 
is even more important than teaching reading, writing and 
arithmetic. 

You may remember the tale of Paul and Virginia and its 
tragic end. Virginia after an exile of several years in Europe, 
where she had been in a convent, is returning to her beautiful 
Isle of France. Her ship is wrecked upon the rocky shore. 
Paul sees the wreck from the shore and attempts to reach 
Virginia, but is restrained. The wreck drifts nearer. Virginia 
is approached by a huge sailor who has cast off his clothes in 
order the better to fight the sea. He holds out his arms to her, 
imploring her to jump and assuring her that he can save her 
if only she will trust herself to him. Does Virginia throw herself 
into the arms of the brave tar who is willing to risk his own 
life to save her? No, her convent bred soul is shocked. She 
has seen his bare body. She blushes and turns away. She 
drowns and the next day her body is washed up on the beach. 
Paul succumbs to grief and is buried by her side. In this matter 
of sanitation the public is playing the part of Virginia. Paul 
is the State Board of Health, imploring aid. The strong sailor, 
able to buffet the waves on the sea of ignorance, is education. Do 
not blush and turn away from the bare truths of a sanitary 
knowledge. Do your duty. Surely the knowledge that you 
have been instrumental in saving human life is a reward worth 
the striving for. 

Whenever the teacher suspects scarlet fever, measles, or other 
contagious disease, the child should at once be excluded from the 
school and a physician sent for. There is no excuse for a case 
of smallpox in the school, as the State has prohibited any child 
who has not been vaccinated from attending school. If the 
child does attend, the principal of the school and each trustee is 



143 

liable to a fine. Vaccination is the only safeguard against 
smallpox. 

While these contagious diseases require immediate attention, 
there are other conditions which are of more importance. Among 
these may be mentioned defective vision, evidenced by holding 
the head to one side; faulty hearing, often accompanied by ear 
discharge; disease of nose and throat, manifested by mouth 
breathing, muffled voice, or nasal tones. 

The pupils often have skin disease. Some of these, as ring- 
worm, are very contagious. Enlarged glands, "kernels" of the 
neck, unless caused by sores of the scalp or neck, may be tuber- 
cular. A limp may indicate hip joint disease. The attention of 
the parent should be called to any of these conditions and exam- 
ination by a physician advised. Attention when the child is 
young may prevent permanent defects or disability. 

Defective teeth are often the cause of disease. Of the 10,000 
school children inspected in the rural schools in South Carolina, 
over thirty per cent, had teeth needing immediate dental atten- 
tion. 

About thirty per cent, of them showed evidence of hookworm 
disease. Should any of your pupils appear pale, sallow, or 
undersized, or should they be backward mentally, instruct the 
parents to write to the State Board of Health, Columbia, S. C, 
for mailing cases, and directions for sending specimens of 
excreta for examination. 

Remember that while all of us are exposed to contagious dis- 
eases, we may often escape if our resisting power is normal. In 
order to have this so, the most important thing is to breathe an 
abundance of fresh air day and night. The school room should 
always be well ventilated, and the parents should leave the 
children's sleeping room open. Sanitary privies for the proper 
disposal of body discharges should be on the grounds. 

The drinking water should be from a pump or an artesian 
well. Surface well water is liable to cause typhoid fever and 
other intestinal diseases. Each child should have a drinking 
cup which can be hung on a nail. This will prevent the spread 
of colds, measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, 
whooping cough, and consumption. Each child should have a 
single desk. At least two periods each week should be devoted 
to instructing the children about disease prevention. 



144 

As Dr. Rosenau truly says, " Preventive medicine is the watch- 
word of the hour and enlistment in the cause can come only 
through education." 

The teacher will meet with skepticism and sometimes ridicule, 
but she should remember that "the soft tongue breaketh the 
bone." She is fighting for the welfare of the community and 
the result of her labors will certainly come. 

A Few Things to Be Remembered. 

A sanitary closet costs less than a case of typhoid fever. 

Screening the house may cost $30.00 or $40.00, but a coflfin 
costs more. It will prevent malarial fever and typhoid fever. 

Pure drinking water is insurance against sickness. 

Fresh air costs nothing, but is worth everything. We need as 
much of it in winter as in summer. 

If you wish to find out how to prevent disease, write to The 
State* Board of Health, Columbia, S. C. 

WRITING. 

An extended observation of the writing in the schools of 
South Carolina has convinced me that this ver}^ necessary and 
useful art is being sadly neglected. The written exercises of the 
pupils are frequently almost illegible, and usually the writing 
is a slow and painful process. 

Writing, like spelling, speaks for itself. The inability to 
write a good hand is a defect in education which cannot be con- 
cealed. The subject should receive more serious attention by 
all the teachers of South Carolina, and especially by those in 
the rural schools. 

The teacher of writing should have three aims constantly 
before her. 

1. She should endeavor to impress the correct form of the 
letter so indelibly upon the mind of the child that he may at least 
know when he is writing well and when he is writing poorly. 

2. She should endeavor to develop correct position and correct 
movement of the arm in writing so that the work may be done 
with ease. 

3. She should develop skill and speed in the use of the pen. 
The child should begin to write as soon as he enters school. 

The first lessons in writing should be conducted at the black- 



145 

board where the child should copy Avords or sentences written 
in a large, round hand by the teacher. Writing at the board 
makes it almost necessary for the child to use the full arm 
movement which is so desirable for ease and speed. The writing 
at the seat during the first year should be with a large pencil 
on unruled paper. Here again the writing should be large 
enough to prevent a cramped finger movement. 

The teacher's own handwriting will set the standard for the 
pupils and will influence their penmanship all their lives. The 
teacher should, therefore, develop for the school room at least 
a clear, round hand which she is willing for her pupils to 
imitate. 

Writing Book Xumber I is introduced in the second grade, 
and in the latter half of this grade the pupil may begin the use 
of pen and ink. If teachers in the sixth and seventh grades 
find one copy book insufficient for the year, they may use 
Numbers V and VI in the sixth grade, and Numbers VII and 
VIII in the seventh grade. 

The drill in writing should by no means be confined to the 
copy book. Before beginning the copy book exercise there 
should be first a drill in free arm movement and this should be 
followed by a practice on the copy of the day on blank writing 
paper. When the pupil has in this way secured a certain 
amount of correctness and ease in writing the copy, it should 
be written in the copy book. The copy book itself should serve as 
a record of the pupil's progress rather than a basis for practice. 

In every written exercise the teacher should emphasize correct 
penmanship. It does very little good to have a pupil practice 
writing well a few minutes each day and then fix a habit of 
poor writing by carelessness in his other written exercises. No 
more written work should be given than the pupils can write 
well. The practice of assigning quantities of written work for 
school punishment is especially to be condemned. 

The teachers of a tow^nship may sometimes secure a special 
effort in penmanship by exchanging exhibits of writing with 
each other. The penmanship of the county should be prominent 
in the county exhibit. 

B. D. Berry & Company, of Chicago, 111., the publishers of the 
adopted series of writing books, will shortly issue a manual con- 
taining special suggestions for teachers of penmanship. Every 

10— T. M. 



146 

teacher in South Carolina should write for a copy of this 
manual. 

DRAWING. 

The Augsburg Drawing Tablets, published by the Educational 
Publishing Company, and the Applied Arts Drawing Book, 
published by Atkinson-Mentzer & Grover, have been adopted 
by the State Board of Education for use in the Schools of South 
Carolina as indicated in the course of study. These companies 
publish complete manuals of suggestions to teachers of drawing. 

Teachers who are using Augsburg Tablets for the first, second, 
or third year should write to the Pool & Isely Co., of Atlanta, 
Ga., for a copy of Augsburg's Teachers' Manual, Book I, and 
Augsburg's Lesson Outlines. Teachers who are using the tablets 
for the fourth, fifth, and sixth years should write to the Pool & 
Isely Co., Atlanta, Ga., for Augsburg's Teachers' Manual, Book 
II and Augsburg's Lesson Outlines. These books contain com- 
plete instructions for each week's work in the Drawing course, 
for both drawing and color work. They will be mailed free to 
any teacher in South Carolina whose pupils use Augsburg's 
drawing Tablets. 

All teachers whose pupils use the Applied Arts Drawing 
Books should write the Atkinson-Mentzer & Grover Co., Chicago, 
111., and request a copy of their manual. It will be mailed free of 
charge. 

Teachers should also write to President D. B. Johnson of 
Winthrop College and request a copy of the very excellent bul- 
letin on Drawing and Manual Training issued by the College. 

HOMEMAKING AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE. 

One of the most important services which a teacher can render 
to the community in which she works is to stimulate the natural 
impulses of the girls in her school towards the improvement of 
the home. In the course of study, it will be noted that cooking 
is optional. Perhaps not many schools at present will introduce 
a course in cooking. It can be more easily done than the teacher 
will imagine. If the school has the work-room described earlier 
in this Manual, a cook stove and a few necessary utensils may 
be gathered at the school house itself. This, however, is not 
necessary. Excellent work has been done by teachers who have 
simply organized "Homemakers Clubs" among the larger girls 



147 

and have encouraged them to meet at their own homes and 
follow out the suggestions of the teacher, or the directionss which 
have come from the supervisor of the work for the State. Win- 
throp College is performing no greater service to the State of 
South Carolina than that embodied in the "Practice Home." 
Teachers of the State should write to Miss Carrie B. Hyde, 
Winthrop College, for information about the "Homemakers' 
Club" and should secure from the college the bulletins relating 
to domestic science. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR PLANNING A LESSON. 

Dr. Patterson Wardlaw, Professor of Pedagogy, University of 

South Carolina. 

No lesson is so easy that you can afford to teach it without 
planning. 

The time for planning a lesson is before its assignment to the 
pupils. 

There are certain questions that you must settle before you are 
prepared to teach the lesson. 

Ask yourself, "What is the purpose of this lesson? What, 
definitely, is the point to be made?" To get this clearly is the 
most important part of your preparation. 

Purposes are of more than one kind. 

1. Take first the case in which the purpose is to get the pupils 
to understand some general principle — a rule, definition, law or 
maxim. In this case you had better go over the ground with the 
class before assigning the lesson for study. Children in the ele- 
mentary grades do not follow courses of reasoning in text-books. 

Ask yourself, "What life-interest of the children can I har- 
ness to the truth of this lesson ? What real problem of theirs can 
it be made to help them solve?" 

Then, "Wliat part of their present knowledge or acquirements 
must be used as a foundation on which to build the new lesson?" 

Ask, "What objects or facts will best serve as examples, speci- 
mens, instances, samples of the principles which I am trying to 
teach? How best can these be presented so as to draw interest 
to that feature in which they all alike exemplify the point of the 
lesson?" 

Next, "How can the pupils be led to work out a statement of 
this common feature — a statement that will be true for all the 



148 

examples?" This will be the principle that you are trying to 
teach — the point of your lesson. 

Then, "What can I do to get the pupils everlastingly to apply 
the principle to new cases?" They are applying it if it enables 
them either to understand more facts or to do more jobs, in school 
or out. (One does not really know a truth until he can apply it.) 
Then ask yourself, "'How^ can I manage all this with a maxi- 
mum of activity on the part of the pupils and a minimum of 
talk on the part of the teacher?" 

Following the plan thus suggested, you should be able to give 
the class an understanding of the principle to be taught. Then 
assign the statement in the book for study, and give plenty of 
exercises in its application. 

2. Let us take next the case in which the purpose of the lesson 
is, not comprehending a principle, but grouping and remembering 
facts; for example, a narrative in history. 

Ask yourself, "What is the picture or system of pictures which 
this lesson should lodge in the pupil's mind? How shall it be 
connected with his present interests and his present knowledge? 
How can it be made vivid, real, life-like? How much of this 
work shall be left for the text-book to do? What help do the 
pupils need for getting the thought of the text? To what parts 
of the lesson should the pupils be urged to pay special attention? 
When I tell them to study the lesson, what exactly do I Avant 
them to do?" 

Teachers rarely think sufficiently of the last three questions. 
Take, for illustration, the spelling lesson. Do you mean for the 
pupil to spread his attention evenly over all the words and letters 
of the lesson or to pile it up on the only places on which an intel- 
ligent child need put attention? Suppose the lesson contains 
goal. If he is fit for this class, he will take for granted the f/ and 
the L All that he needs to impress on his memory is oa. In 
capsize, the only danger point is z; in excitable, a and possibly c. 
In vinle, he needs only to be warned not to be so reasonable as to 
leave off the senseless e. . The same principle may be applied to 
most other studies. 

If you have ansAvered the above (juestions intelligently, you are 
ready to assign and teach the lesson. Permit one additional sug- 
gestion for the recitation itself : Keep this question always in the 
forefront of consciousness: "Do these words that the pupil 
is reciting represent a real image in his OAvn mind?" For, this. 



149 

the test is that he can tell the fact in his own language, can men- 
tion an example of the principle, or can put it into action. 

Finally, here is the heart of the whole matter : Let your teach- 
ing start from a felt need of life, proceed to general pHnciples, 
and return ivith these to he lived in a larger loorld. 

HELPFUL BOOKS FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS. 

Each year should witness an improvement in the teachers' 
work. Experience is one important element to this end. This is, 
however, not sufficient, and we should add to our own experience 
the thought and experience of the whole teaching profession as 
it is embodied in educational literature, and should thus apply 
the wisdom of many to the solution of our problems. 

The following list of books is recommended as especially 
helpful to rural teachers and all others who may be looking for 
simple statements of pedagogical truth embodying distinctly 
practical suggestions. 

Administration and Supervision. 

Colgrove — "The Teacher and the School.'' Chas. Scribner's 
Sons, $1.25. 

Gilbert— "The School and Its Life." Silver, Burdett & Co., 
$1.25. 

Foght — "The American Rural School.'' The Macmillan Co., 
$1.25. 

Perry — "Problems of the Elementary School." D. Appleton 
&Co. ^ 

Knorr — "Consolidated Rural Schools and Organization of a 
County System." (Free upon request directed to the United 
States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.) 

Knorr— "A Study of Fifteen Consolidated Schools." (Free) 
Southern Education Board, Washington, D. C. 

Kern — "Among Country Schools." 

Class Room Management. 

Bagley — "Class-Room Management." The Macmillan Co., 
$1.25. 

Seeley — "New School Management." Hinds, Noble & Eld- 
redge, $1.25. 



150 

Dinsmore — "Teaching a District School." American Book 
Co., $1.00. 

Hughes — "How to Keep Order." A. Flanagan Company, 15c. 

Murphy — "Turning Points in Teaching." A. Flanagan Com- 
pany; paper 30c., cloth 60c. 

Branson — "Page's Theory and Practice of Teaching." Amer- 
ican Book Co., $1.00. 

Methods and Devices. 

McMurry — "The Method of the Eecitation." The Macmillan 
Company, 90c. 

Arnold— "Plans for Busy Work." Silver, Burdett & Co., 50c. 

Arnold — "Waymarks for Teachers." Silver, Burdett & Co., 
$1.25. 

Hughes — "Mistakes in Teaching." A. Flanagan Company, 40c. 

George — "Suggestions for Seat Work." A. Flanagan Com- 
pany, 15c. 

Reading and Language. 

Arnold— "Reading— How to Teach It." Silver, Burdett & 
Co., $1.00. 

Arnold — "Learning to Read." Silver, Burdett & Co., 36c. 

Briggs & Coifman — "Reading in Public Schools." Row Peter- 
son & Co. 

Haliburton — "Phonics in Reading." B. F. Johnson & Co. 

Spaulding & Bryce — "Learning to Read." Newson & Com- 
pany, 60c. 

Welch — "Literature in the School." Silver, Burdett & Co. 

Chubb — "The Teaching of English." Macmillan & Company. 

Smith — "Participle and Infinitive In-Ing." (Free) University 
of South Carolina. 

Arithmetic. 

Dunton — "Arithmetic in Primary Schools." Silver, Burdett & 
Co., $1.00. 

McMurry — -"Special Method in Arithmetic." The Macmillan 
Co., 70c. 

Hall — "Arithmetic Primer." 

Geography. 

McMurry — "Special Method in Geography." The Macmillan 
Co., 70c. 



151 



History. 



McMiirry — "Special Method in History." The Macmillan 
Company, T5c. 

Brigham — " Geographic Influences in American History." 

Nature Study and Agriculture. 

Hodge — "Nature Study and Life." Ginn & Company. 

Holtz— "Nature Study." Chas. Scribner's Sons, $1.50. 

"Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Clubs," "School Lessons on 
Corn," "School Exercises in Plant Production" and numerous 
other helpful Bulletins, may be obtained free on request to the 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Osterhout — "Experiments With Plants." The Macmillan 
Company, $1.25. 

Bricker — "The Teaching of Agriculture in the High School." 
The Macmillan Company, $1.00. 

Coulter and Patterson — "Practical Nature Study." A. Apple- 
ton & Company, $1.00. 

Stories and Games. 

Wyche — "Great Stories and How to Tell them." Newson & 
Company, $1.00. 

Bryant— "How to Tell Stories." Houghton, Mifflin & Com- 
pany, $1.00. 

Brancroft — "Games for the Playground, Home, School and 
Gymnasium." The Macmillan Company, $1.50. 

School Hygiene. 

Bulletins of State Board of Health. 

Farmers' Bulletin No. 463. Department of Agriculture. 

School Improvement Bulletin. (Free) on request directed to 
Clemson College. 

Barry. — "The Hygiene of the Schoolroom." Silver, Burdett 
& Co., $1.00. 

Ogden — "Rural Hygiene." The Macmillan Company, $1.50. 

Child Study and'Moral Education. 

Smith— "The Evolution of Dodd." Rand, McNally & Co., 
Chicago, 60c. 



152 

Sisson — "The Essentials of Character." The Macmillan Com- 
pany, $1.00. 

Tanner— "The Child." Rand, McNally & Co. 

PROTECTION FROM FIRE. 

B. A. Wharton, Deputy Insurance Commissioner. 

The Insurance Department of South Carolina is making an 
earnest effort to reduce the fire waste in the State and thereby to 
reduce the cost of insurance. This department not only points 
out the conditions that are dangerous to the safety of property 
from a fire standpoint, but it earnestly seeks to protect life from 
this constantly menacing danger. To accomplish this end the 
Department is making a most earnest effort to have all public 
buildings, and especially school buildings, provided with adequate 
fire escapes. We feel that it is of the greatest importance that all 
public buildings two or more stories high, not fully provided 
with safe stairways, should be equipped with outside iron fire 
escapes, adequate to the demands of such buildings. 

The constant practice of fire drills in all schools is an insurance 
against panic and should not be neglected or disregarded by any 
school. Many of the best schools in the State practice fire drills 
regularly. The fire drill practice and the placing of chemical fire 
extinguishers in all school buildings, together with adequate fire 
escapes, would not only be a great protection to the safety of 
property, but might be the means of saving many persons from a 
most horrible death. 

This Department has also devoted much time to the study of 
the "Dangers and Chemistry of Fires." The fire waste in South 
Carolina could be greatly reduced if the people of the State would 
give the subject serious consideration. Space will not allow us 
to take up or discuss in detail the various causes of fire. I will, 
however, briefly state a few of the most frequent causes. The 
greater portion of the fire waste is due to carelessness, or to 
ignorance of the chemistry of fires. The careless handling of 
matches, the almost wicked custom of allowing children to scatter 
matches indiscriminately about the house and the premises, the 
common custom of distributing matches in all parts of the house 
for sake of convenience are all very dangerous to the safety of 
property. The universal use of the safety match would greatly 
reduce the fire waste and the cost of insurance. 



153 

The criminal wooden ash box shonld Ije condemned and metal 
ash receptacles shonld take their places. The nntidiness of 
premises and the presence of waste paper, excelsior, trash and 
other rubbish cause many fires. Few people appreciate the fact 
that an additional rate of insurance is charged for "'untidiness of 
premises." 

The careless habit of kindling fires Avith the aid of kerosene oil 
is a very dangerous one and through it every year many lives are 
lost and thousands of dollars' worth of property destroyed. Gaso- 
line on the hands of careless persons who do not know its dangers, 
is causing great loss of life and property. Another serious cause 
of fires is "spontaneous combustion." It is an established fact 
that greasy waste or oily rags cause many fires. The housewife 
or janitor who polishes the furniture or oils the floor, and throws 
the oily rags in the corner of the room or in the closet does not 
realize the great danger of fire from such a source, but many fires 
originate in this manner every year. I hope to see the day when 
the "Dangers and Chemistry of Fires" will be taught in every 
school in South Carolina. It would be the means of saving many 
lives and Avould greatly reduce the fire waste, and the cost of 
insurance. 

TEN COMMANDMENTS IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 

1. Prepare yourself for your work. Know the subjects you are 
to teach, and know as thoroughly as possible the children who 
make up your school. Get acquainted wdth the parents so that 
you may have a true understanding of conditions and a basis of 
sympathy with your pupils. 

2. Plan your work. You should haAe a copy of every book 
which you expect to teach, and should not go before your class 
without having made definite plans for the lessons you are to 
teach, and definite plans for the assignment of the new lesson. 

3. Make definite assignments of lessons. Do not merely say, 
"Get the next lesson." but tell your pupils the nature of the prepa- 
ration you expect them to make. Be sure that the assignment is 
short enough to enable the average pupil in the class to do the 
work without home assistance. Do not assign more work than 
your pupils can perform. To do so invites negligence. Teach 
your pupils how to study. It will prevent idleness and mischief. 

4. Plan carefully the tactics of your school room. Devise a 
definite method of assembling and marching into the room, of 




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